Category Archives: Energy

the posts in this category used to be in “Energy in A Nutshell” at my former web site.

Peak soil: Industrial agriculture destroys ecosystems and civilizations: Biofuels make it worse

Preface. In 2018 I thought it was time to reorganize this post, as it grew more and more bloated and disorganized with new information. Eventually it turned into my 2021 book Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biofuels, Biomass, Energy, Peak Biofuels, Peak Topsoil, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Transportation: How long can we adapt before we fall off the Net Energy Cliff?

Preface. There are too many factors besides geological depletion to predict a future timeline of collapse. Plus each region will be more or less affected by each factor, sooner or later as well. This is a unique crash – there … Continue reading

Posted in Cascading Failure, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Energy Infrastructure, Exponential Growth, Exports decline to ZERO, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Transportation, Transportation Infrastructure | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Responding to arctic oil spills

Preface. It is nuts to put oil rigs in an area with such vast amounts of ice on the move, and all the additional dangers listed below. No wonder there’s little to no drilling.  It’s too expensive to keep oil … Continue reading

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Book review of “In order to live: A North Korean girl’s journey to freedom” by Yeonmi Park

Related Posts North Korea collapse posts How different nations have coped with oil shortages Dmitry Orlov: How Russians survived the collapse of the Soviet Union A book review of “Russia’s Food Policies and Globalization” Lessons Learned from How Cuba Survived … Continue reading

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Summary of German Armed Forces Peak Oil Study

[This is a summary I first published in 2011.  It’s important, so I’ve re-posted it today.  According to Der Spiegel this study was leaked and not meant for publication.  The document concludes that the public must be made aware of … Continue reading

Posted in Books, GOVERNMENT, Government study predictions, Military, Over Oil, Peak Oil, Peak Resources, War, War Books | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How reasonable are oil production scenarios from public agencies?

So far both the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and International Energy Agency (IEA) are on target in their predictions. In 2014 (the last year for which there is data), world production of crude oil and lease condensate was 77.833 … Continue reading

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No, we’re not going to make ethanol out of CO2 and stop global warming

Preface.  In the article below Robert Rapier debunks the research paper proposing to convert CO2 into ethanol.  The researchers were honest and said “that the process is unlikely to be economically viable.” But the press spun it into a major … Continue reading

Posted in Biofuels, Biomass EROI, Critical Thinking, Far Out, Other Experts | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Richard Heinberg: Will the US really be a major energy exporter?

[ I read this the day it was published (January 16, 2017) at resilience.org here, but thought it would be interesting to post in the future to see if the EIA predictions were as optimistic as Heinberg and Hughes thought … Continue reading

Posted in How Much Left, Natural Gas, Oil & Gas Fracked, Richard Heinberg | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Wind and solar need natural gas to balance intermittent, variable, and seasonal power

Preface. The highest wind states are getting more and more dependent on natural gas to balance wind and solar as they live and die. Yet conventional natural gas in the U.S. has peaked (half of our national gas, and declining … Continue reading

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The effects of Middle East events on U.S. Energy markets

[ Of note from this U.S. House 2011 hearing: John Hofmeister, former President of Shell Oil.  Matt Simmons, who passed away this past summer, used to speak of the Straits of Hormuz as, we live one day away from an … Continue reading

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