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Recent Posts
- Electrifying freight trains in the U.S. is a bad idea
- Why Nuclear Power can’t replace fossil fuels
- Energy, Water, & Climate Change are interdependent
- Why fusion power is Forever Away
- Climate Change dominates news coverage at expense of other existential planetary boundaries
- Excerpt from “The Geopolitics of Resource Wars”
- Homes & Buildings
- Book Review “The Outlawed Ocean” by Ian Urbina
- Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
- Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
- Catton on Collapse “Bottleneck: Humanity’s Impending Impasse”
- Book Review of Grain Brain: Extraordinary claim not backed up by evidence
Category Archives: Energy
Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive
In the news: Cullen A (2024) Corn Belt fertilizer is killing the Gulf of Mexico. Washington Post. About 30 percent of the nitrogen applied for raising corn is lost to water, and much of it right now is draining off … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil, Water Pollution
Tagged aquifer depletion, biodiesel, corn, erosion, ethanol, pollution, soybeans, topsoil
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Energy certificates as currency when oil shocks strike?
Since world oil peaked in 2018, clearly there will be a time when there are oil shortages. The price may be high at first, but that often brings on a financial crash (Hamilton 2013), unemployment rises as business shut down, … Continue reading
Posted in Oil Shocks, Rationing, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged blackouts, currency, ecological economics, energy crisis, Hubbert, money, oil shock, rationing
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Limits to Growth: Natural gas fertilizer that feeds 4 billion of us
Preface. In chapter 4 of my book “Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy“, I explain how it came to be that fertilizer is made out of natural gas, using the energy of natural gas, and why … Continue reading
Posted in Life After Fossil Fuels, Limits To Growth, Natural Gas, Peak Food, Starvation
Tagged agriculture, food, peak food, peak natural gas, starvation
1 Comment
Far out #7: Ammonia power & recycle wind turbines by eating them
Preface. This optimistic article is honest enough to say that the new process of not emitting NOx when using ammonia for energy is a long way from commercial viability, and has myriad hurdles. This is not the most promising way … Continue reading
Posted in Far Out, Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Recycle, Recycling
Tagged ammonia, fiberglass, hydrogen, natural gas, platinum group, recycle, Ruthenium, skeptic, wind turbine
1 Comment
Implications of Refinery closures for Homeland Security & critical infrastructure safety
Preface. The talk of electric vehicles saving the world from greenhouse gases is nonsense, a red herring to distract everyone from what’s really at stake, and from the material requirements to build EV with rare earth and other scarce minerals … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Oil & Gas, Peak Oil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure
Tagged diesel, electric vehicle, EV, gasoline, infrastructure, lubricants, peak oil, pipeline, refinery
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Why liquefied coal (CTL) and natural gas (GTL) can’t replace oil
Preface. Here are just a few of the reasons why we aren’t likely to convert enough coal to diesel to matter as oil decines (see Chapter 11 Liquefied Coal: There Goes the Neighborhood, the Water, and the Air for more … Continue reading
Posted in Coal to Liquids (CTL), GTL Gas-To-Liquids, Peak Coal, Peak Oil
Tagged coal-to-liquids, CTL, flow rate, gas-to-liquids, GTL, peak coal, peak oil
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The Good News About Peak Oil
As oil declines, the threat of a greenhouse earth & extinction from climate change decline Carbon sequestration, wind, solar, geo-engineering, and other remedies are trivial compared to the effect declining fossil fuels will have on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Natural Gas, Peak Oil, Pesticides, Planetary Boundaries, What to do
Tagged climate change, fertilizer, natural gas, peak oil, pesticide, rationing
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Will Artificial Intelligence destroy us?
Preface. When it comes to artificial intelligence, most articles assume it will happen, so discussions range around when and how it will happen. Often speculation that a general AI may use its ability to find patterns in data will allow … Continue reading