Category Archives: 3) Fast Crash

The case for a fast, rather than a slow one. Most societies crashed in 20 years or less. There has never been or will be again a crash like ours, where the world of 7 billion people became utterly dependent on a non-renewable source of energy — fossil fuels.

Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive

Posted on April 9, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 | Comments Off

Energy certificates as currency when oil shocks strike?

Posted on April 6, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 | Comments Off

Limits to Growth: Natural gas fertilizer that feeds 4 billion of us

Posted on March 30, 2022 by energyskeptic

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

Posted on March 27, 2022 by energyskeptic

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

Posted on March 24, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 | 1 Comment

Food shortages as the energy crisis grows and supply chains break?

Posted on March 21, 2022 by energyskeptic

Preface. This is a long preface followed by two articles about how supply chains and complex tractors may be affected by energy shortages and consequent supply chain failures in the future.Which we’re already seeing as massive numbers of ships sit … Continue reading →

Posted in Cascading Failure, CyberAttacks, Economic Decline, Interdependencies, Liebig's Law, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Oil | Tagged collapse, EROI, interdependency, microchip, peak oil, supply chain | Comments Off

Why liquefied coal (CTL) and natural gas (GTL) can’t replace oil

Posted on March 9, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 | Comments Off

The Good News About Peak Oil

Posted on March 3, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 | Comments Off

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

Posted on February 28, 2022 by energyskeptic

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 →

Posted in Limits To Growth, Overshoot, William Rees | Tagged contraction, ecological footprint, limits to growth, localization, overshoot, steady-state economy | Comments Off

Lithium-ion battery recycling, environmental impact, energy used

Posted on February 25, 2022 by energyskeptic

Preface. The future of both electric vehicles and utility-scale energy storage are depending on lithium-ion batteries because of their high energy-density, and even though lithium is limited, it’s about the only kind of battery being made for transport (because it … Continue reading →

Posted in Lithium-ion, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged battery, energy, environmental impact, LCA, recycle, toxicity | Comments Off