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- 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: Metals
When will gold production peak?
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 →
Lithium, an essential net-zero metal for batteries
Preface. Lithium is essential for transportation because it is the third lightest element and has the highest energy potential, yet ever larger amounts are going to energy storage batteries. Barnhart (2013) found that the only utility-scale battery for which there … Continue reading →
Posted in Metals
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Tagged electric vehicles, lithium production, lithium supply, mining lithium, net-zero metal, peak lithium, recycling
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1 Comment
Walter Youngquist: Geodestinies Metals
Preface. I was fortunate enough to know Walter for 15 years. He became a friend and mentor, helping me learn to become a better science writer, and sending me material I might be interested in, and delightful pictures of him … Continue reading →
What are rare earth metals and how are they used?
Preface. After oil, the main feature of new products will be drastic simplification. The re-use of existing stuff. Lack of precision machine tools as they rust away. Back to basics: wood, iron, and clay. Yet every high-tech object depends on … Continue reading →
Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals
An electric car uses five times as many minerals as a conventional car (IEA 2020): IEA, Minerals used in selected power generation technologies, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used-in-selected-power-generation-technologies There are 17 rare earth elements (REE) that China controls up to 97% of … Continue reading →
Posted in Automobiles, Metals
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Tagged Cerium, china, dysprosium, Europium, lanthanum, neodymium, Praseodymium, rare earth, terbium, Yttrium
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1 Comment
High-Tech can’t last: limited essential elements with limited lifespans
There are 17 rare earth elements in the periodic table. About nine of those elements go into every iPhone sold… and if China were suddenly to disappear from a map tomorrow, Apple would lose about 90% of those elements. Source: … Continue reading →
Posted in Metals, Microchips and computers
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Tagged cascading failure, critical element, mineral, peak, rare earth, supply chain
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3 Comments
Rare: The High-Stakes Race to Satisfy Our Need for the Scarcest Metals on Earth by Keith Veronese
Preface. This is a book review of Keith Veronese’s book “The High-stakes race to satisfy our need for the scarcest metals on earth” (well, the kindle notes, so a bit disjointed). Capitalism believes there’s a solution for everything due to … Continue reading →
Minerals and War from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”
Preface. This is an extract from Ugo Bardi’s book “Extracted”. He makes the case that once we were able to forge metal weapons was when predatory nations began to invade one another to gain resources like coal to make more … Continue reading →