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Fossil fuels vs climate action: A not-so-hidden dilemma
Fossil fuels vs climate action: A not-so-hidden dilemma When crossing the ocean by sea or by air small differences in the direction you take will result in huge differences in your ultimate destination. Back in the middle of the last century, human society might have made relatively minor adjustments in its trajectory, say, in the […]
How our miraculous transportation system turns water into brine
How our miraculous transportation system turns water into brine “Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” When English romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published those words in 1798, there was no dense network of modern concrete and asphalt roads in Great Britain (or anywhere else) and there were no automobiles or trucks to ride […]
Omicron on the rise: Pandemic as a life lesson for the human species
Omicron on the rise: Pandemic as a life lesson for the human species If we think of a disease as something that is sending us a message that we need to incorporate into our individual and collective lives, we get a much different view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. So far, our attempts at integrating […]
Human extinction: Are we already too late?
Human extinction: Are we already too late? As I was reading Henry Gee’s “Humans Are Doomed to Go Extinct,” I was reminded of an iconic scene from one of the many “Star Trek” movies. In “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the ship’s captain, James Kirk, rushes to the engine room to discover that his friend Spock is […]
U.S. shale oil and gas forecast: Too good to be true?
U.S. shale oil and gas forecast: Too good to be true? Earth scientist David Hughes—who is out with a new skeptical report on the future of U.S. shale oil and gas—has two very important things in common with Michael Burry. Burry is the investor made famous by The Big Short, the book that was later turned into a […]
Technology that “empowers the individual” can threaten all of us
Technology that “empowers the individual” can threaten all of us Whenever I hear about a new technology that “empowers the individual,” I know that one thing is likely to be true about it: It will soon (if not already) be turned to negative and harmful ends. And yet, we as a society keep falling for […]
Critical minerals problem: Supply chain issues come to the fore
Critical minerals problem: Supply chain issues come to the fore It seems that all of a sudden there is talk of mineral shortages and two metals which are thought to be plentiful in the Earth’s crust, nickel and zinc, have been added to the list of minerals now deemed critical to the United States, a list recently […]
Another extraordinary delusion: Mining helium from the Moon
Another extraordinary delusion: Mining helium from the Moon Asia Times tells us that there is a “secret mining war” taking place in space over helium-3, a version of helium which is surprisingly abundant on the Moon. Helium-3 is an isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. The far more prevalent arrangement is helium-4, two […]
‘Your grocery stores are like museums’: Then and now
‘Your grocery stores are like museums’: Then and now About 15 years ago I helped to host a group of Russian entrepreneurs during one stop on their tour of the United States, a tour sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. As we hosts accompanied our visitors, we naturally fell into conversation with them. One of […]
Chokepoint democracy: Workers capitalize on global system weak spots
Chokepoint democracy: Workers capitalize on global system weak spots In his book Carbon Democracy Timothy Mitchell attempts to explain the rising and falling political power of the working class in terms of the evolution of the world’s energy system. The first fossil fuel, coal, required hoards of men (and it was almost exclusively men) to bring […]
Things do not have to run out for their scarcity to become destabilizing
Things do not have to run out for their scarcity to become destabilizing Economic cornucopians who believe “innovation” and “substitution” will solve every constraint on the resources needed for modern civilization use a clever piece of misdirection to deflect the arguments of those concerned about limits. These cornucopians say that the claim by the limits crowd that […]
It’s all connected: The natural gas market and its casualties
It’s all connected: The natural gas market and its casualties Natural gas was supposed to be the so-called bridge fuel to the low-carbon renewable energy economy. It was abundant, cleaner to burn than oil and coal, and more and more available to anyone who wanted it as a global market in liquefied natural gas (LNG) […]
Whatever happened to China’s revolutionary molten salt nuclear reactor program?
Whatever happened to China’s revolutionary molten salt nuclear reactor program? Several years ago during a radio interview, the host told me that the Chinese were planning on deploying a commercial modular molten salt reactor (MSR) by 2020. For context, these nuclear reactors are based on existing technology demonstrated by previous operating prototypes, can use fuel that is […]
All of a sudden: Climate change tipping points appear with a vengeance
All of a sudden: Climate change tipping points appear with a vengeance Across the world climate change seems to have arrived earlier than expected. There are world-class athletes with bodies trained for endurance and strength breaking down from the extreme heat visited on the Tokyo Olympics by mother nature. There are the continuing wildfires in the American […]
Huge carbon capture pipeline network proposed: Industry’s ‘delay-and-fail strategy’ rises again
Huge carbon capture pipeline network proposed: Industry’s ‘delay-and-fail strategy’ rises again An astute journalist I know once described carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a “delay-and-fail strategy” devised by the fossil fuel industry. The industry’s ploy was utterly obvious to him: Promise to perfect and deploy CCS at some vague point in the future. By […]
