Category Archives: Limits To Growth

Why do leaders & the public deny peak oil & limits to growth?

Preface.  It’s strange that we’re on the cusp of Peak Oil, and yet the only existential threat you ever hear about is Climate Change. The New York Times has mentioned climate change over 15,000 times the past 5 years, and … Continue reading

Posted in 2) Collapse, Alternative Energy, An Overview, Critical Thinking, GOVERNMENT, Limits To Growth, Other Experts | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”

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

Peak food production happened, how will we feed 2-3 billion more?

Preface. Also see related article Limits to Growth? 2016 United Nations report provides best evidence yet. Nichols (2015) below shows that climate change is already affecting harvests of the world’s top 10 crops that comprise 83% of our calories: barley, … Continue reading

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Telling others about peak oil and limits to growth

Preface. Obviously the planet is finite.  World crude oil production peaked in 2018, and been on a plateau since 2008.  Other resources, such as food, are peaking while the polycrisis depletes fisheries, forests, groundwater and more. Yet this reality is … Continue reading

Posted in Critical Thinking, Limits To Growth, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Spermageddon: Sperm is declining around the world

The rate sperm concentration is falling globally from samples collected from 1972 to 2000 (orange) and since 2000 (red) Source: Davies 2022 Preface. I’ve been seeing this issue in science news for years now. Scientific data has accumulated long enough … Continue reading

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Dennis Meadows of Limits to Growth: Collapse inevitable

Preface. Dennis Meadows is a co-author of The Limits to Growth.  In 1972, the team of 66 scientists he assembled for the original Limits to Growth study concluded the most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline … Continue reading

Posted in Limits To Growth, Peak Oil History | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

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 , , , , | 1 Comment

Rees on Overshoot: Growth through contraction: conceiving an eco-economy

Preface.   William Rees writes some of the best and most comprehensible papers of all on the overshoot crisis we are in.  We should have begun a U-turn in the 60s after The Population Bomb, or the 70s when Limits to … Continue reading

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Your life and the economy depend on biodiversity

Preface. We are trained in school, newspapers, and TV to view the world politically and economically. Not ecologically.  The World Economic Forum article below is an excellent summary of why biodiversity is so important, as much as climate change, which … Continue reading

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Lifespan of infrastructure, transportation, and buildings

Preface. What follows is from the International Energy Agency 2020 report “Energy technology perspectives” on how to transition to net zero emissions by 2050. This might require the replacement of just about everything, since power plants, steel blast furnaces, cement … Continue reading

Posted in Airplanes, Automobiles, Concrete, Dams, Electricity Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, Limits To Growth, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Oil & Gas, Transportation Infrastructure, Trucks | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments