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Recent Posts
- ‘The oil we eat’. Following the food chain back to iraq
- Vanishing open spaces: population growth and sprawl in America
- Admiral Rickover 1957: Energy Resources & Our Future
- The Green New Deal is not a solution for the real problem: Overshoot
- A transition from fossil fuels to renewables could take a century – if it ever happens
- 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
Category Archives: ! PEAK EVERYTHING
Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014
Preface. At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations. … Continue reading
Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution
Tagged agriculture, cover crop, erosion, no-till, peak soil, soil health, U.S. House of representatives
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Plants are sucking streams dry thanks to more CO2
Slezak, M. October 24, 2015. Carbon emissions make Earth greener but are also drying it out. NewScientist. Source: Ukkola, A. M., et al. October 19, 2015 Reduced streamflow in water-stressed climates consistent with CO2 effects on vegetation. Nature Climate Change 6, … Continue reading
Posted in CO2 and Methane, Peak Water, Water
Tagged carbon dioxide, climate change, streams, water
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China consumes mind-boggling amounts of raw materials
September 10, 2015. China Consumes Mind-Boggling Amounts of Raw Materials. Visual Capitalist. Over the last 20 years, the world economy has relied on the Chinese economic growth engine more than it would like to admit. … Continue reading
Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING
Tagged aluminum, china, concrete, copper, minerals, nickel, steel
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Coal plants are causing water shortages in China
Wong, E. March 22, 2016. Report Ties Coal Plants to Water Shortage in Northern China. New York Times. China’s consumption of coal, a major contributor to climate change and the country’s horrific air pollution, is worsening a severe water shortage … Continue reading
Posted in China, Energy Production, Peak Water
Tagged china, coal, power, water
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Former President Bill Clinton on Peak Oil, Peak Soil, and other depleting resources
Former President Bill Clinton. May 4, 2007. The Looming Crisis; Can We Act in Time? Harvard Kennedy School. Excerpts from Keynote Address by Former President William Jefferson Clinton Kennedy School Spring Conference – Cambridge, MA I think it is highly … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Policy & Politicians, Peak Oil, Peak Topsoil
Tagged peak oil, President Clinton, resource depletion
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Peak Aquifers: Very little Ground water is renewable, perhaps only 1.5%
Gleeson, Tom, et al. November 2015. The global volume and distribution of modern groundwater. Nature Geoscience. The water in aquifers and wells billions of people depend upon is mostly a non-renewable resource that could run out. Underground water is renewed … Continue reading
Posted in Groundwater, Peak Water
Tagged aquifer, groundwater, water
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Peak fossil fuels limits climate change to low-to-medium outcomes in IPCC report
Excerpts from 24 page: Höök, M., Tang, X. 2013. Depletion of fossil fuels and anthropogenic climate change: a review. Energy Policy, 52: 797-809 Conclusion of paper: Fossil fuel constraints will limit anthropogenic climate impact towards the low-medium outcomes presented by … Continue reading
Posted in ! PEAK EVERYTHING, But not from climate change: Peak Fossil Fuels, Climate Change, Supply Chains, Transportation
Tagged climate change, peak coal, peak natural gas, peak oil
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A third of Nuclear Reactors are going to die of old age in the next 10-20 years
70% of reactors are over 25 years old, 23% are over 35 years old, so within 10 to 20 years about a third will have to be decommissioned, far more than the 63 under construction. Some are bound to fail … Continue reading
Michael Dittmar, Institute of Particle Physics: Peak Uranium 2015
The End of Cheap Uranium June 17, 2011. Michael Dittmar, Institute of Particle Physics, Zurich, Switzerland Journal: Science of the Total Environment This paper concludes that “the end of the cheap uranium supply will result in a chaotic phase-out … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power Energy, Peak Uranium
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Energy Watch Group. Peak Uranium 2020-2035
Energy Watch Group. March 2013. Fossil and Nuclear Fuels – the Supply Outlook (172 pages) Uranium production peaks for the same reasons as oil, coal, and natural gas: the depletion of easy and cheap to develop mines. EWG’s guess is … Continue reading
Posted in Nuclear Power Energy, Peak Uranium
Tagged nuclear power, peak uranium
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