Category Archives: ! PEAK EVERYTHING

Food, topsoil, aquifers, phosphorus, rare metals essential to microchip fabrication, windmills, solar, and other products; sand; oil; natural gas

Peak crude oil did not happen in 2018. But we are still running out of time

Preface.   Using EIA International Data for world crude oil + condensate oil monthly production to compare January through October in 2024 and 2025, it looks like about 850 million more barrels will be produced in 2025 than in 2024.  And … Continue reading

Posted in Debt, How Much Left, Peak Oil | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Enough minerals for a solar, wind, & battery transition from fossil fuels?

Preface.  The transition could require as much as $173 trillion in energy supply and infrastructure investment over the next three decades. One HELL of a lot of metals needed – questionable if possible in in three decades, especially with China … Continue reading

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When will gold production peak?

Figure 1. Mine production of gold worldwide from 2010 to 2024 (in metric tons). Source: USGS – Mineral Commodity Summaries 2025, page 83 Preface.  Ores are decreasing in gold concentrations, and found in deeper and more remote places, requiring more … Continue reading

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Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”

Preface.  This post has excerpts from Scheyder’s 2024 “The War Below” about the  metals and minerals renewables will need – over 6 times more than fossil fueled internal combustion vehicles, natural gas and coal plants, and nuclear power (IEA 2021). … Continue reading

Posted in Energy Books, Limits To Growth, Mining, Peak Copper, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Peak Helium

Preface. Attention all you capitalists who think we can grow forever on a finite planet. Stuff can run out! Helium is the only element on earth that is completely nonrenewable.   A supply crisis is expected by 2060 (Hu 2025). Commercial helium … Continue reading

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Refrigeration uses up to 30% of world electricity

Preface. This is a book review of Twilley’s 2024 book Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves. It is a really great book, highly recommended. Refrigeration plays a much larger role in our lives than people realize. … Continue reading

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Peak food production happened, how will we feed 2-3 billion more?

Preface. Also see related article Limits to Growth? 2016 United Nations report provides best evidence yet. Nichols (2015) below shows that climate change is already affecting harvests of the world’s top 10 crops that comprise 83% of our calories: barley, … Continue reading

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Chemical industrial farming does not work: Pests evolve immunity quickly

Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides destroy soil and ecosystems. Yet a third of crops are lost to pests just as in the many millennia of farming before chemicals Preface. This is a book review of Dyer’s “Chasing the Red Queen”, and … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Chemical Pollution, Chemicals, Overshoot, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chemical industrial farming does not work: Pests evolve immunity quickly

Telling others about peak oil and limits to growth

Preface. Obviously the planet is finite.  World crude oil production peaked in 2018, and been on a plateau since 2008.  Other resources, such as food, are peaking while the polycrisis depletes fisheries, forests, groundwater and more. Yet this reality is … Continue reading

Posted in Critical Thinking, Limits To Growth, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

The conveyor belt may be slowing down — Yikes!

Preface. The conveyor belt (AMOC: Atlantic meridional overturning circulation) may be slowing down. If it stops, floods, increased sea level rise, and disturbed weather systems. Until recently the IPCC and other scientists didn’t think this might happen until 2300 or … Continue reading

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