Category Archives: Manufacturing & Industrial Heat

Enough minerals for a solar, wind, & battery transition from fossil fuels?

Posted on September 23, 2025 by

Preface.  The transition could require as much as $173 trillion in energy supply and infrastructure investment over the next three decades. One HELL of a lot of metals needed – questionable if possible in in three decades, especially with China … Continue reading →

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When will gold production peak?

Posted on September 9, 2025 by

Figure 1. Mine production of gold worldwide from 2010 to 2024 (in metric tons). Source: USGS – Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, page 83 Preface.  Ores are decreasing in gold concentrations, and found in deeper and more remote places, requiring more … Continue reading →

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Vaclav Smil on why there will be no energy transition

Posted on August 6, 2025 by

Preface. This post has excerpts from energy expert Vaclav Smil‘s 2024 free paper “Halfway between Kyoto and 2050“. Smil’s book is free, here. Below is a shortened, reworded article from Scientific American in 2014 written by Smil on this topic … Continue reading →

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Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”

Posted on July 9, 2025 by

Preface.  This post has excerpts from Scheyder’s 2024 “The War Below” about the  metals and minerals renewables will need – over 6 times more than fossil fueled internal combustion vehicles, natural gas and coal plants, and nuclear power (IEA 2021). … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Limits To Growth, Mining, Peak Copper, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book review of “Chip War” and the Fragility of microchips

Posted on March 8, 2024 by

Major semiconductor producing countries rely on each other for different types of chips. Top semiconductor producers’ 2021 export values by source and destination, billions USD.  Source: PIIE 2022 https://www.piie.com/research/piie-charts/major-semiconductor-producing-countries-rely-each-other-different-types-chips Preface.  We have become insanely dependent on technology that can’t possibly … Continue reading →

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The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy

Posted on March 1, 2024 by

One minute on the internet around the world. Source Infographic by @LoriLewas and @officiallyChad, 2020. Preface.  This is a book review of Pitron’s “The Dark Cloud”. Of note is the huge amount of electricity and rare earth and other critical … Continue reading →

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Book Cobalt: The Making of a Mining Superpower

Posted on August 23, 2023 by

Preface. This book is about the history of the town of Cobalt and would make a great horror movie — the disease, filth, poverty, poor wages, racism, and destruction of the environment — the biodiversity, fresh water and more.

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Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables

Posted on July 17, 2023 by

Source: Bare (2012) Environmentalists win review of two more plants near Rosemont copper mine. Arizona Capitol times. I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic … Continue reading →

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550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean the worst ones

Posted on June 26, 2023 by

Preface. Below are excerpts of a US House 2010 congressional hearing on cleaning up abandoned mines. Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemical Pollution, Congressional Record U.S., Hazardous Waste, Mining, Pollution, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

China is destroying itself

Posted on December 26, 2022 by

Preface. China has been destroying itself for many decades now.  In Mao’s “great leap forward” about 35 to 50 million are estimated to have died from starvation from 1958 on, as you’ll read in my book review of” Shapiro J … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, Hazardous Waste, Mining, Soil | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment