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.

Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power

Posted on February 21, 2021 by

  Preface. Sunshine may be free, but the materials to make solar contraptions sure aren’t.  Since sunshine arrives in a diluted form, vast expanses of solar photovoltaic panels will be needed to produce the world’s 24,000 Terawatt hours of electrical … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled

Posted on February 18, 2021 by

Preface. This is a post about why rare and critical metals aren’t recycled at all or at best, just a small percent. Basically it is still cheaper to mine them from scratch than to try to separate them out from … Continue reading →

Posted in Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Precious Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Recycle, Recycling, Ugo Bardi | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

What are rare earth metals and how are they used?

Posted on February 15, 2021 by

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 →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Mining, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on What are rare earth metals and how are they used?

Toasters are Toast

Posted on February 12, 2021 by

Preface. Thomas Thwaites’ book, “The Toaster Project” illustrates why it will be so hard, if not impossible, to bounce back from collapse in the future to anything like what we take for granted today.  Thwaites set about trying to make … Continue reading →

Posted in Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Peak Resources | Tagged , | 7 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by

Preface. This is an introduction to how microchips are made to give you an idea of how difficult and amazing they are.  This is a very high-level overview gathered mostly from the textbooks of Quirk (2001) and Van Zant (2004). … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Collapse, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Localization, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals

Posted on February 3, 2021 by

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, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How are microchips made?

Posted on January 31, 2021 by

Preface. Computer chip fabrication plants need to run continuously for weeks 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). Chip … Continue reading →

Posted in Chemicals, Microchips and computers | Tagged , | 16 Comments

Motherboards: too complicated to make after oil

Posted on January 28, 2021 by

Preface. The wood-based world of the future simply won’t have the energy and minerals required not just to make electronic devices, but the precision machine tools to make them.  As diesel fuel grows scarce and the economy fails, supply chains … Continue reading →

Posted in Microchips and computers | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Many steps using fossil fuels to make cans & potato chips

Posted on January 25, 2021 by

Preface.  I am gobsmacked by how much energy goes into making beverage cans and potato chips, look at all the steps, each one using energy!  Why haven’t we run of oil yet? Especially when you look at everything else out … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Will the Great Game be won by Cyber Attacks?

Posted on January 25, 2021 by

Preface.  This is a book review of Joel Brenner’s “America the Vulnerable: Inside the New Threat Matrix of Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare”. The ransom cyber attack on the colonial pipeline forced the shutdown of a vital pipeline delivering half … Continue reading →

Posted in China and War, Cyber, Cyber Attack Books, CyberAttacks, War Books | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Will the Great Game be won by Cyber Attacks?