Category Archives: What to do

Book Review: The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material & the Construction of Civilization

Posted on April 23, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. This is a book review, mainly with excerpts, of Ennos’s book “The Age of Wood. Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization”. If you know anything about woodworking, you will enjoy the detailed descriptions of how and … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy Books, Jobs and Skills, Life After Fossil Fuels, Wood | Tagged evolution, forests, infrastructure, Life After Fossil Fuels, tools, wood | 1 Comment

Tree planting is not a simple solution but sure beats Carbon Capture!

Posted on April 20, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. The article from Science below lists both negative and positive outcomes depending on where trees are planted. The unintended negative effects could be a reduced water supply, the destruction of native grasslands and spread of invasive tree species, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS), Plant Trees | Tagged carbon capture and storage, CCS, forests | 4 Comments

Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power

Posted on February 21, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Sunshine may be free, but the materials to make solar contraptions sure aren’t. Since sunshine arrives in a diluted form, vast expanses of solar photovoltaic panels will be needed to produce the world’s 24,000 Terawatt hours of electrical … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged gallium, indium, photovoltaic, PV, rare earth, Ruthenium, solar, tellurium | 5 Comments

Why rare and valuable metals are not recycled

Posted on February 18, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. This is a post about why rare and critical metals aren’t recycled at all or at best, just a small percent. Basically it is still cheaper to mine them from scratch than to try to separate them out from … Continue reading →

Posted in Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Precious Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Recycle, Recycling, Ugo Bardi | Tagged downcycling, limits to growth, material limits, rare earth metal, recycle, recycling, solar CSP, solar PV, windmill | 5 Comments

Even Pencils will be hard to make

Posted on February 9, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Most of us are unaware of how complex our society is, how things are made, how food is grown, how stuff is delivered, and the people, energy, transportation, and kinds and sources of materials in every day objects. This … Continue reading →

Posted in EROEI Energy Returned on Energy Invested, Localization, Supply Chains | Tagged collapse, EROEI, manufacturing, peak oil, pencil | 2 Comments

The Fragility of Microchips

Posted on February 6, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. This is an introduction to how microchips are made to give you an idea of how difficult and amazing they are. This is a very high-level overview gathered mostly from the textbooks of Quirk (2001) and Van Zant (2004). … Continue reading →

Posted in 2) Overshoot, An Index of Best Energyskeptic Posts, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Interdependencies, Localization, Manufacturing & Industrial Heat, Microchips and computers, Supply Chains | Tagged collapse, computer chip, fragility, microprocessor, precision, preservation of knowledge | 8 Comments

Renewables: not enough minerals, energy or time and mining is destructive

Posted on January 22, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Electricity generating contraptions like wind and solar can’t replace the 50% of oil used in global manufacturing, because they can’t generate the high heat needed, or run battery or catenary electric trucks as I explained in “When Trucks Top … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternative Energy, Battery - Utility Scale, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Platinum Group Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Recycle, Recycling, Solar, Wind | Tagged battery, limits to growth, lithium, metal, mineral, mining, rare earth, utility scale | 5 Comments

Minerals essential for wind, solar, and high-tech, are anything but clean and green

Posted on January 16, 2021 by energyskeptic

This is a book review of Pitron’s “The rare metals war”. To produce the metals and minerals to make a transition to wind, solar, nuclear and so on would be incredibly destructive and polluting. A fifth of China’s arable land … Continue reading →

Posted in Battery - Utility Scale, Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements, Peak Resources, Photovoltaic Solar, Recycle, Recycling, Wind | Tagged metal, mineral depletion, rare earth, solar, wind | 1 Comment

Book list: What to do about peak everything and limits to growth

Posted on January 13, 2021 by energyskeptic

If you search on prepping you’ll get 262 million results. That isn’t my focus, there are plenty of groups and websites devoted to that. Where best to be is important but hard to decide since initially cities might be best … Continue reading →

Posted in Advice, Book List, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged book list, survival, what to do, where to be | 14 Comments

328 Million Americans use 3.2 million pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels in their lifetime

Posted on January 10, 2021 by energyskeptic

Preface. Even if you go off the grid, civilization is using up minerals at an exponential rate to maintain the non-negotiable American lifestyle, which in 2006, required 3.7 million pounds of minerals, metals, and fuels in each person’s lifetime, or … Continue reading →

Posted in Mining, Peak Critical Elements, Recycle, Recycling | Tagged consumption, critical elements, limits to growth, peak minerals | 6 Comments