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- The insect apocalypse will kill billions more people than climate change
- The war on drugs. A book review of “Chasing the scream”
- Peak crude oil did not happen in 2018. But we are still running out of time
- Sheriffs have too much power
- Book review “They poisoned the world: Life & death in the age of Forever Chemicals”
- John Howe on one child per woman: still too high to stay under limits to growth curves
- Ted Trainer: The radical implications of a zero growth economy
- Part 5 Raven Rock. Hidey holes for government and military officials to carry on democracy after nuclear war destroys the planet
- Become a Bison rancher
- Part 4 Raven Rock. The government abandons plans to aid the public, only the government to survive
- Prisoners are treated worse than slaves in America
- Part 3 Raven Rock. The government’s plans for after a nuclear holocaust
- Part 2 Raven Rock. The U.S. government’s plans to save civilians from nuclear war
- Legal & Illegal Immigration numbers must drop to carrying capacity
- Part 1 Intro. Raven rock: the story of the U.S. governments secret plans to save itself after a nuclear war and let the rest of us die
Tag Archives: rare earth
Book review of 2024 Scheyder “The War Below”
Preface. This post has excerpts from Scheyder’s 2024 “The War Below” about the metals and minerals renewables will need – over 6 times more than fossil fueled internal combustion vehicles, natural gas and coal plants, and nuclear power (IEA 2021). … Continue reading
Posted in Energy Books, Limits To Growth, Mining, Peak Copper, Peak Critical Elements, Peak Rare Earth Elements
Tagged antimony, cobalt, copper, lithium, mining, rare earth, tailings dams
1 Comment
Rare Earth updates: recent research on why complex & intelligent life are rare in the Universe
Preface. These are updates to Ward & Brownlee’s book “Rare Earth: Why Complex life is Uncommon in the Universe”. If we are one of the few planets with intelligent life, what a shame it would be if we destroyed ourselves … Continue reading
Posted in Evolution, Human Nature, Planetary Boundaries, Wood
Tagged combustion, complex life, evolution, fermi paradox, intelligent life, photosynthesis, rare earth, Theia, venus, water
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Coal Ash is a major toxic waste
Coal ash is what remains after coal is burned, and has numerous elements dangerous to human health, including known carcinogens such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, and radium. A nuclear power plant generating as much energy as a coal plant generates … Continue reading
Posted in Hazardous Waste
Tagged arsenic, coal ash, radioactive, rare earth
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Not enough rare metals to scale up solar power
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
What are rare earth metals and how are they used?
Preface. After oil, the main feature of new products will be drastic simplification. The re-use of existing stuff. Lack of precision machine tools as they rust away. Back to basics: wood, iron, and clay. Yet every high-tech object depends on … Continue reading
Posted in Alternative Energy, Mining, Peak Rare Earth Elements
Tagged gallium, indium, mining, rare earth, solar
Comments Off on What are rare earth metals and how are they used?
Autos need finite rare earth, critical, & precious metals
An electric car uses five times as many minerals as a conventional car (IEA 2020): IEA, Minerals used in selected power generation technologies, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/minerals-used-in-selected-power-generation-technologies There are 17 rare earth elements (REE) that China controls up to 97% of … Continue reading
Posted in Automobiles, Peak Rare Earth Elements
Tagged Cerium, china, dysprosium, Europium, lanthanum, neodymium, Praseodymium, rare earth, terbium, Yttrium
1 Comment
High-Tech can’t last: limited essential elements with limited lifespans
There are 17 rare earth elements in the periodic table. About nine of those elements go into every iPhone sold… and if China were suddenly to disappear from a map tomorrow, Apple would lose about 90% of those elements. Source: … Continue reading
Rare Earth: Why complex life is uncommon in the universe
Preface. So much research on why complex life is rare in the universe has come out since this book I’ve created another post: Rare Earth updates: recent research on why intelligent life is probably rare in the Universe. And intelligent … Continue reading