Category Archives: ! PEAK EVERYTHING

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

After collapse: plunder or feudalism?

  IWW poster “Pyramid of Capitalist System” (c. 1911), depicting an anti-capitalist perspective on statist/capitalist social structures Preface. In this post an anonymous author looks at what will happen if society collapses and we have to suddenly go back to … Continue reading

Posted in Farming & Ranching, Peak Food, Peak Phosphorus, Soil, Where are the rich going | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Failing states, collapsing systems: biophysical triggers of political violence

Preface. In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil, etc.) The Media tend to focus exclusively on economic … Continue reading

Posted in Cascading Failure, Caused by Scarce Resources, Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse, Exports decline to ZERO, Food production, Interdependencies, Limits To Growth, Middle East, Net Energy Cliff, Other Experts, Over Oil, Overpopulation, Peak Oil, Violence, War & Violence | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

After the harvest – protecting food from rats, mold, insects, fire, and bacteria

Preface. It’s hard enough to protect crops before a harvest. In New South Wales, Australia a plague of millions of mice has multiplied after a bumper grain harvest and eating whatever they can find. Mice can produce 500 offspring a … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Books, Farming & Ranching, Peak Food | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Doomsday: Will peak phosphate get us before global warming?

Price, Ed.  July 22, 2013. Doomsday: Will Peak Phosphate Get us Before Global Warming? oilprice.com Although climate change catches the headlines, it is not the only doomsday scenario out there. A smaller but no less fervent band of worriers think … Continue reading

Posted in Peak Phosphorus | Tagged | 2 Comments

Sand mines used to frack oil & gas are destroying the best topsoil in the Midwest

Preface. Frac sand is a high-purity quartz sand that is injected into wells to blast and hold open cracks in the shale rock layer during the fracking process. In the United States, frac sand is being mined intensively from sandstone … Continue reading

Posted in Oil & Gas Fracked, Peak Sand, Soil | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Peak coal 2013-2045 — most likely 2025-2030

Preface.  The amount of coal reserves is far less than what the IPCC has assumed in their models, where they used RESOURCES, which is coal that can’t be economically and/or technologically obtained.  Typical economists, they assume humans are so smart … Continue reading

Posted in Coal, Peak Coal | Tagged | Comments Off on Peak coal 2013-2045 — most likely 2025-2030

Peak Uranium by Ugo Bardi from Extracted: How the Quest for Mineral Wealth Is Plundering the Planet

Preface. This is an extract of Ugo Bardi’s must read “Extracted” about the limits of production of uranium. You can find plenty of material saying there is are a lot of uranium reserves and resources  left elsewhere (EMD 2019). The … Continue reading

Posted in Peak Uranium, Ugo Bardi | Tagged , | 5 Comments

EROI of Canadian Natural Gas. A peak was reached despite enormous investment

[ Although I’ve extracted much of this paper, it is not complete—there are missing equations, figures, tables, and text– so see the paper for details (it is available online).  I’ve rearranged the order of the paper.  The conclusion is just … Continue reading

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Natural Gas, Peak Natural Gas | Tagged , | 4 Comments

How Much Oil is Left?

The Power of Exponential Growth: Every 10 years we have burned more oil than all previous decades Preface. There is a lot of oil left. The problem is, most of the remaining oil is unconventional, which needs a lot more … Continue reading

Posted in How Much Left, Oil, Peak Oil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Water as a geopolitical threat. U.S. House of Representatives

Preface. Water scarcity is causing unrest and could led to war in Asia and the Middle East. There’s a website that keeps track of conflicts over water going back for 3,000 years here — 655 of them.   The prevalence of … Continue reading

Posted in Caused by Scarce Resources, Congressional Record U.S., Peak Water, Water | Comments Off on Water as a geopolitical threat. U.S. House of Representatives