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- 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
- “More and More and More” one of the best books on energy ever written
- The staggering destruction of knowledge by Christians in the Roman Empire
- Why the R/P Reserves to Production ratio does not show when oil will run out
Category Archives: What to do
How past societies avoided the Agricultural trap
Preface. There’s a great deal of evidence that past tribes did grow food but deliberately chose not to make that the entirety of the way they lived, preferring a more seasonal styles of life with hunting and gathering, and governance … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything, Farming & Ranching
Tagged agriculture, dawn of everything
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Why were California & Pacific NW Native tribes so different from each other?
Preface. Why do many societies near each other have such different values, beliefs, mythology, and governance? In “Dawn of Everything”, the authors suggest that it’s because:
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged agriculture, dawn of everything, slavery
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Dawn of Everything: self-governance not Kings & Slavery
Preface. After the Great Simplification new societies will arise, and I hope copy past civilizations that deliberately avoided slavery, war and autocratic kings. I’ve extracted a few examples of this from The Dawn of Everything below.
What did Native Americans make of the French in the 16th century?
Preface. My first exposure to philosophy was in High School, about the philosophies that helped shape the U.S. constitution. This led me to read Rousseau, Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and others. “Dawn of Everything” points out that Native American philosophies should … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged French, philosophy, Wendat
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Dawn of Everything Conclusion
Preface. Clearly for their conclusion to make sense you’ll need to read the book and see the evidence for yourself. Since they challenge just about all of the ideas currently in fashion, you can find some pretty damning reviews of … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged agriculture, cahokia, wendot
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Dawn of Everything Introduction
Preface. It is likely that all world oil, both conventional and unconventional, peaked in 2018. The good news is that this means there isn’t enough carbon left to turn the world into a hothouse extinction, though for centuries the planet … Continue reading
Posted in Dawn of Everything
Tagged agriculture, politics
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Neighborhood councils to cope with energy decline
I’m reading “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity” which is one of the best books I’ve read in years, and a very hopeful one – this 700 page book is full of evidence that agriculture, capitalism, slavery, … Continue reading
Posted in Government on what to do, Life Before Oil, Political Books
Tagged agriculture, bird flu, councils, dawn of everything, energy decline, monarchy, pandemic, peak oil
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Can we eat enough fried food for biodiesel to keep trucks running?
Fatberg from London sewer If the U.S. can’t make enough biodiesel from plants, then the question becomes: Can we step up our fast-food game? Can we eat more French fries? Biodiesel is already made from used cooking oil (11.5% of … Continue reading
Posted in Biodiesel, Farming & Ranching
Tagged biodiesel, fast food, fatberg
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Energy certificates as currency when oil shocks strike?
Since world oil peaked in 2018, clearly there will be a time when there are oil shortages. The price may be high at first, but that often brings on a financial crash (Hamilton 2013), unemployment rises as business shut down, … Continue reading
Posted in Oil Shocks, Rationing, U.S. Congress Energy Policy
Tagged blackouts, currency, ecological economics, energy crisis, Hubbert, money, oil shock, rationing
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So you don’t want to be a farmer postcarbon? City jobs of the future
Preface. This book summarizes the work of Henry Mayhew from 1849 to 1852. He wrote about the people and goods being sold on the streets of London, interviewing hundreds of street vendors. He estimated there were about 30,000 of them … Continue reading
Posted in Jobs and Skills, Life Before Oil
Tagged jobs, skills, what to do
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