Tag Archives: civilization

What would happen if trucks stopped running?

Posted on March 24, 2026 by

Preface. In “Why You Should Love Trucks” I showed that essential supply chains depend on trucks nearly completely.  Because of little inventory and dependence on just-in-time deliveries, our civilization would almost immediately feel the repercussions of trucks stopping. In fact, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cascading Failure, Dependence on Oil, Electric & Hydrogen trucks impossible, Infrastructure & Fast Crash, Oil Shocks, Transportation Infrastructure, Transportation Supply chain, Trucks, When Trucks Stop Running | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Collapse of Mayan civilization: drought, mercury poisoning, toxic algae

Posted on March 12, 2023 by

Preface. Drought is probably reason #1, but collapse is complex, I’ve seen lists of over 200 reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire, and our own fall will have even more causes, though triggered by energy decline, since for … Continue reading →

Posted in Drought, Drought & Collapse, Peak Food, Scientists Warnings to Humanity | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Collapse of Mayan civilization: drought, mercury poisoning, toxic algae

Dawn of Everything: self-governance not Kings & Slavery

Posted on May 3, 2022 by

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.

Posted in Dawn of Everything | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

15 Nations that Collapsed because of Drought: will we be the 16th?

Posted on May 28, 2020 by

Preface.  Another repercussion of drought may be the Muslim religion as Fleitmann (2022) proposes below. This post began with 10 civilizations that collapsed due to drought (below), and I’ve added 5 more. Will the American South West be #16? Lynn … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapsed & collapsing nations, Drought & Collapse | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

How sand transformed civilization

Posted on April 29, 2020 by

Preface. No wonder we’re reaching peak sand. We use more of this natural resource than of any other except water. Civilization consumes nearly 50 billion tons of sand & gravel a year, enough to build a concrete wall 88 feet … Continue reading →

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Book: John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”

Posted on October 18, 2018 by

Preface.  This contains excerpts from John Perlin’s “A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization”. It’s one of my favorite books about natural resources, exploring the role wood has played in the rise and fall of civilizations since they … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse of Civilizations, Collapsed & collapsing nations, Deforestation, Life Before Oil, Limits To Growth, Peak Resources, Soil, Wood | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Civilizations Fail by William Ophuls

Posted on May 23, 2017 by

[ These are my notes from the book, not a proper book review, and since the notes are disjointed, you’d be wise to buy the book–  it’s excellent!  Plus then it’s on your shelf for future generations to understand what … Continue reading →

Posted in Collapse of Civilizations | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization”

Posted on January 10, 2017 by

[ This is a book review of Ward-Perkins “The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization“. What sparked my interest in reading several books on the decline of Rome was when James Howard Kunstler  (KunstlerCast 278) interviewed me about … Continue reading →

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Why the demise of civilization is inevitable

Posted on September 30, 2016 by

MacKenzie, D. April 2, 2008. Why the demise of civilisation may be inevitable. NewScientist. Every civilization in history has collapsed. Why should ours be any different? Homer-Dixon doubts we can stave off collapse completely. He points to what he calls … Continue reading →

Posted in 3) Fast Crash, Interdependencies | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Peter Turchin: violence and social unrest in the U.S. and Europe likely by 2020

Posted on May 18, 2016 by

Preface. Peter Turchin, an expert on the cycles of history and the rise and fall of civilizations, has used mathematical models of complex systems to predict political instability. Debora MacKenzie at NewScientist interviewed him about his upcoming book “Ultrasociety” in … Continue reading →

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