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.

Fusion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Posted on July 31, 2023 by

Source: The target chamber of LLNL’s National Ignition Facility, where 192 laser beams delivered more than 2 million joules of ultraviolet energy to a tiny fuel pellet to create fusion ignition. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Preface. Anyone who thought the … Continue reading →

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Opposition to mining will prevent a green transition to renewables

Posted on July 17, 2023 by

Source: Bare (2012) Environmentalists win review of two more plants near Rosemont copper mine. Arizona Capitol times. I could overwhelm you with world-wide trillions of tons of mining waste and how China has rendered 20% of its farmland too toxic … Continue reading →

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The electric grid could be down for years if LPTs destroyed

Posted on July 3, 2023 by

Large Power Transformer Source: ABB Conversations (2013) Preface. This post contains excerpts from two Department of Energy documents and one about large geomagnetic storms and how they would affect Large power transformers (LPT) and the U.S. electric grid. They are … Continue reading →

Posted in An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Electric Grid, Electricity Infrastructure, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean up the worst of them

Posted on June 26, 2023 by

Preface. Below are excerpts of a US House 2010 congressional hearing on cleaning up abandoned mines. Abandoned mines can cause soil erosion, heavy metal contamination (i.e., cyanide, lead, arsenic, mercury, uranium), and acid drainage that threatens thousands of streams and … Continue reading →

Posted in Congressional Record U.S., Hazardous Waste, Mining, Pollution, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Uranium waste from 50+ sites contaminating groundwater

Posted on June 12, 2023 by

Preface. One of the top priorities of collapse from energy decline is to clean up nuclear (Superfund and other hazardous) wastes NOW, while we have the energy and technical ability to do so. Future generations will be thrown back into … Continue reading →

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Infrastructure interdependencies: an attack on one is an attack on all

Posted on May 29, 2023 by

An Attack on Energy Infrastructure would affect all other Infrastructure I should consolidate my many posts on cyber attacks, EMPs, and other ways the electric grid could come down, but our dependencies are just so widespread that I don’t want … Continue reading →

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Why biofuels can not scale up to replace petroleum

Posted on May 22, 2023 by

Preface. This is my favorite paper on why we can’t replace crude oil with biofuels.  Of course, oil is a biofuel. But alas, not renewable, since it took over 100 million years to make them. Every year we burn fossil … Continue reading →

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Military Threats: Peak oil, population, climate change, pandemics, economic crises, cyberattacks, failed states, nuclear war

Posted on May 15, 2023 by

Mackintosh C (2010) Peak Oil “The debate is over”. Permaculture research institute. https://www.permaculturenews.org/2010/11/10/peak-oil-the-debate-is-over/ Preface. The military is more realistic about the challenges the world faces than congress or other branches and government agencies. In 2010, all of the military branches … Continue reading →

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Skyscrapers: A bad idea as energy declines

Posted on May 8, 2023 by

Preface. One reason Paris is such a lovely city is that it was built to human scale, with buildings of five stories or less, because that was about as high as people were willing to climb, so not surprisingly, rents … Continue reading →

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Book review of Turchin’s “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”

Posted on May 1, 2023 by

Preface. This is a book review of both “Secular Cycles” and “War & Peace & War”.  I recommend reading “War & Peace & War” first, then the more difficult “Secular Cycles”. Turchin has found patterns in the rise and fall … Continue reading →

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