Category Archives: Infrastructure

This site makes the case that collapse will take decades, not centuries. And the worst that ever has been or will be, it is fossil fuels that enabled 8.2 people to exist on the planet

Trucks running on CNG or LNG

Posted on July 23, 2021 by

Preface. My books “When Trucks stop running” and “Life After Fossil Fuels” explain why trucks can’t run on electricity — batteries simply don’t scale up, they are too heavy leaving little if any room for cargo. A catenary system has … Continue reading →

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The Next Big Thing: Distributed Generation & Microgrids

Posted on July 14, 2021 by

  Preface. Last updated 2022-9-5   The first article below explains what microgrids will look like in the future.  But first a brief look at what a microgrid is, as Angwin explains in her book  “Shorting the Grid. The Hidden Fragility … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Distributed Generation, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Grid instability, Photovoltaic Solar, Wind | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Interdependencies & supply chain failures in the News

Posted on July 11, 2021 by

Preface. Joseph Tainter, explains in his famous book “The collapse of complex societies” how complexity causes civilizations to collapse. Fossil fuels have created the most complex society that has ever, or will ever exist, using fossil energy that can’t be … Continue reading →

Posted in Interdependencies, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Century from Now Concrete Will be Nothing But Rubble

Posted on June 26, 2021 by

Photo: road abandoned since 1984 in the Florida Keys Preface. Much of the material that follows is based on Robert Courland’s 2011 book Concrete Planet, which explains why concrete is an essential part of our infrastructure. And it’s all falling … Continue reading →

Posted in Concrete, Infrastructure & Collapse, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Sand, Roads | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Microchip fabrication plants need electricity 24 x 7 for four months

Posted on June 25, 2021 by

Preface. Computer chip fabrication plants need to run continuously for months to accomplish the thousands of steps needed to make microchips. A half-hour power outage at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek chip plant caused losses of over $43 million dollars (Reuters 2019). Intermittent power … Continue reading →

Posted in Microchips and computers | Tagged , , , , , | 27 Comments

Pentagon report: collapse within 20 years from climate change

Posted on May 23, 2021 by

Preface. The report that the article by Ahmed below is based on is: Brosig, M., et al. 2019. Implications of climate change for the U.S. Army. United States Army War College. It was written in 2019, before covid-19 and so … Continue reading →

Posted in Arctic, Blackouts, Climate Change, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Military, Over Oil | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Updates to Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy

Posted on May 14, 2021 by

Updates to “Life After Fossil Fuels” Last updated 28 April 2024. Other posts related to this book here. My book is about our many dependencies on fossil fuels, quickly depicted in these very short videos:  Life without Petroleum  A Day … Continue reading →

Posted in Biofuels, Fusion, Groundwater, How Much Left, Hydrogen, Life After Fossil Fuels, Peak Water | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Life After Fossil Fuels: manufacturing will be less precise

Posted on May 5, 2021 by

Preface. This is a book review and excerpts of Winchester’s “The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers created the modern world”. The book describes how the industrial revolution was made possible with ever more precision.  First came the steam engine, possible to … Continue reading →

Posted in Infrastructure & Collapse, Jobs and Skills, Life After Fossil Fuels, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Life After Fossil Fuels: manufacturing will be less precise

Australian Senate hearings on Peak Oil & Transportation 2006

Posted on April 14, 2021 by

Preface.  This post has a summary of two of the nine senate hearings on Peak Oil in Australia in 2006. Someday historians may want to know which politicians knew about the energy crisis and when they knew it, probably to … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Policy & Politicians, GOVERNMENT, Transportation | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Book review of “Bright Green Lies”

Posted on April 4, 2021 by

This is a book review of “Bright Green Lies. How the Environmental Movement Lost its Way and What We can Do About It” by Derrick Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Max Wilbert. This is a timely book.  The Biden administration is … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Mining | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments