David Korowicz : Tipping Point Near-Term Systemic Implications of a Peak in...
This is the most brilliant and succinct paper I’ve ever seen that explains the interdependencies of our economic, energy, infrastructure, food, and other systems. It is so well-written that you ought...
View ArticleChip Fab Plants need electricity 24 x 7. The electric grid needs chips. The...
July 3, 2014 Alice Friedemann www.energyskeptic.com The US Energy Department recently reported that “the nation’s aging electric grid cannot keep pace with innovations in the digital information...
View ArticleElectricity & Diesel / Gasoline interdependency
Freight trucks, trains, ships, airplanes all stop when the electricity is out because the pumps depend on it. Related: Why you should love trucks and When Trucks Stop Lively, M. February 14, 2014....
View ArticleHomeland Security and Dept of Energy: Dams and Energy Sectors Interdependency...
[Below are excerpts from this 45 page document. Dams not only provide power but also water for agriculture, drinking water, cooling water for thermal power plants, ecosystem health, fisheries, and so...
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Electric grid large power transformers take up to 2 years to build
[Large power transformers are essential critical infrastructure to the electric grid, and are huge, weighing up to 820,000 pounds. If large power transformers are destroyed by a geomagnetic...
View ArticleMichael Webber on Energy + Water + Food interdependency
Webber, Michael E. February 2015. Our future rides on our ability to integrate Energy + Water + Food. Scientific American. Michael E. Webber is deputy director of the Energy Institute at the University...
View ArticleThe electric grid, critical interdependencies, vulnerabilities. House of...
Notes from: Congressional Record. September 4 & 23, 2003. Implications of power blackouts for the nation’s cyber-security and critical infrastructure protection. House of Representatives. 246...
View ArticleElectromagnetic pulse threat to infrastructure (U.S. House hearings)
In 2012 and again in 2014, the U.S. House of Representatives held hearings on the threat of electromagnetic pulses — from either the sun or nuclear blasts — to critical U.S. infrastructure. The...
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Irrigation uses a lot of electricity, requires expensive grid in remote areas
[ The articles below show the interdependency of irrigation, electricity, climate change, water, and the U.S. energy sector. In addition I’d add that all of these infrastructures are all falling apart...
View ArticleHow a pandemic could bring down civilization
[ Some of my favorite sections of this article: “The fact is that the best way for people to avoid the virus will be to stay home. But if everyone does this – or if too many people try to stockpile...
View ArticleWhy the demise of civilization is inevitable
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...
View Article1177 B.C. The year civilization collapsed
[ These are my notes that are disjointed but can give you an idea of how fast our fossil-fueled civilization could collapse. We are far more interdependent on much longer global supply chains (a wind...
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Civilization goes over the net energy cliff in 2022 — just 6 years away
[ Below are excerpts from 3 posts by Louis Arnoux (see the full versions here) and a 1-hour video explaining the Hill’s group report here . Basically this explains the Net Energy Cliff and why it...
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Book review of Failing states, collapsing systems biophysical triggers of...
[ In this post I summarize the sections of Nafeez’s book about the biophysical factors that bring nations down (i.e. climate change drought & water scarcity, declining revenues after peak oil,...
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Coal power plants depend on railroads to deliver coal
[ The extract of a Senate hearing below is mostly spent on testimony by utilities bashing the railroads for not delivering enough coal due to a disaster in the Powder River Basin, Wyoming area, where...
View ArticleU.S. GAO on mutually dependent water and energy
[ This post contains excerpts from a Government Accountability Office on the interdependency of water and energy. Mutual dependencies make the essential systems that keep us alive more fragile, since...
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Interdependencies of Energy Infrastructure, Water, and Climate Change GAO 2014
[ This report shows the interdependencies of Climate Change and the nation’s energy infrastructure, which is especially vulnerable because it’s so old and falling apart already. Another GAO report...
View ArticleWater resources infrastructure deteriorating
[ Water infrastructure has inter-dependencies with other essential infrastructure, if dams or levees fail, agriculture and electric power suffer, towns and homes flooded. If ports along the ocean and...
View ArticleDavid Korowicz: A study of global system collapse
[ I’ve extracted about half of Korowicz’s paper, left out the references, math, charts, and tables, so you might want to read the original document yourself. This is a great explanation – one of the...
View ArticlePart 1. How long do civilizations last?
This is most, but not all of Kemp’s BBC article, which you ought to read in its entirety at the link in the title below. I disagree with him when he says that: “The collapse of our civilization is...
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