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Recent Posts
- 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: A Fast Crash
Peak Potassium threatens crops
Potassium is one of the Big 3 essential plant nutrients that has allowed human population to soar to 8 billion people,as well as phosphorus and nitrogen. Potassium is a vital nutrient for plant growth that helps with photosynthesis and respiration, … Continue reading
Posted in Peak Fertilizer, Peak Food
Tagged agriculture, peak food, peak potassium, potash
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Permafrost & lack of gravel will limit arctic natural gas, oil, and coal extraction
Preface. For many people, it’s comforting to know that about 25% of remaining oil and gas reserves (we have the know-how and economics to get it) and resources (beyond our technical and/or monetary capability) are in the arctic. They assume … Continue reading
Posted in Arctic, EROEI remaining oil too low, How Much Left, Peak Natural Gas, Peak Oil, Reserves Lower than stated, Roads, Transportation Infrastructure
Tagged coal, natural gas, oil, permafrost, reserves
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The pillaging of Native American coal, water, uranium and more
Preface. This is a book review of: “Unreal City: Las Vegas, Black Mesa, and the Fate of the West” by Judith Nies. This book is about how stealing the resources of native Americans lands was made legal, despite enormous Native … Continue reading
Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Biodiversity, Coal, Energy Books, Energy Infrastructure, Global Warming, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Mass migrations, Peak Resources, Pumped Hydro Storage (PHS), U.S. Congress Energy Policy, Water Pollution
Tagged aquifer, Black Mesa, coal, electricity, Hopi, Las Vegas, Native Americans, Navajo
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Lab-grown meat is energy intensive – and up to 25 times worse for the climate than beef
Preface. Meat production from animals uses a great deal of energy to produce, distribute, and refrigerate. Crops must be grown that erode soil and drain aquifers. Unfortunately, lab grown meat uses even more energy and also requires crops to extract … Continue reading
Posted in CO2 and Methane, Food production, Peak Food
Tagged agriculture, climate change, food, lab-grown meat
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Oil choke points vulnerable to war, chaos, terrorism, accidents, & piracy
Source: Ballout, D. 2013. Choke Points: Our energy access points. Oil Change. Preface. Below are several articles I’ve collected since 2005 on oil chokepoints. If oil tanker traffic were stopped on one or more, much of the world would plunge … Continue reading
Posted in Chokepoints, Oil & Gas, Oil Shocks, Threats to oil supply
Tagged abqaiq, chokepoint, Ras Tanura, strait
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Fusion is already running out of fuel
Source: Khan A (2021) Nuclear fusion: building a star on Earth is hard, which is why we need better materials. The Conversation. Preface. Of all the hundreds of obstacles fusion has yet to overcome, its death knell could be as … Continue reading
The tremendous material and energy toll of the digital economy
One minute on the internet around the world. Source Infographic by @LoriLewas and @officiallyChad, 2020. Preface. This is a book review of Pitron’s “The Dark Cloud”. Of note is the huge amount of electricity and rare earth and other critical … Continue reading
Posted in Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Microchips and computers, Mining, Peak Critical Elements
Tagged computer chips, data center, electric grid, electricity, internet
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Book review: Lights Out. A cyberattack. A nation unprepared. Surviving the aftermath
Preface. This is one of three posts based on Ted Koppel’s book Lights out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath. There are three posts on Ted Koppel’s book “Lights out”: Book review of Lights Out. A Cyberattack. A … Continue reading
Posted in Cyber, Electric Grid & EMP Electromagnetic Pulse, Energy Books
Tagged cyberattack, electric grid, EMP, Koppel, lights out, preparation
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Off-Road vehicles & equipment need diesel fuel
Preface. Move over semi-trucks. You are not the most important truck in the world, even though I gave you the starring role in “When Trucks Stop Running”. What really matters are the trucks that grow our fuel: Food. And mining … Continue reading