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

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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550,000 abandoned mines, $50 billion to clean the worst ones

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 Chemical Pollution, 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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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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Energy and potato crops. U.S. House Hearing 2011

Posted on April 24, 2023 by

Preface. We eat so many potatoes I thought it interesting how future oil shocks may reduce potato crops. Potatoes are very “oily” needing a great deal of diesel fuel over their life cycle of planting, harvest, delivery to sorting, grading, … Continue reading →

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Collapse of Mayan civilization: drought, mercury poisoning, toxic algae

Posted on March 12, 2023 by

Preface. Drought is probably reason #1, but collapse is complex, I’ve seen lists of over 200 reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire, and our own fall will have even more causes, though triggered by energy decline, since for … Continue reading →

Posted in Drought, Drought & Collapse, Peak Food, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Collapse of Mayan civilization: drought, mercury poisoning, toxic algae

Can we grow enough food postcarbon? Irrigation needs water & electricity

Posted on February 6, 2023 by

Preface. Irrigated agriculture over 58 million acres consumes the largest share of U.S. water. And it’s shrinking as aquifers are drained, reservoirs evaporate, and drought reduces snowpack and rainfall at the same time population and the economy are growing. My … Continue reading →

Posted in Interdependencies, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

China is destroying itself

Posted on December 26, 2022 by

Preface. China has been destroying itself for many decades now.  In Mao’s “great leap forward” about 35 to 50 million are estimated to have died from starvation from 1958 on, as you’ll read in my book review of” Shapiro J … Continue reading →

Posted in Biodiversity, Hazardous Waste, Mining, Soil | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Peak oil, food & the “King of Chemicals” sulfuric acid

Posted on December 2, 2022 by

Preface. I first learned of sulfur’s existence when my grandmother told me how she loved going to tent revivals on the edge of town where it was common for preachers to get converts by burning sulfur to make the fire … Continue reading →

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