Monthly Archives: March 2011

Tainter’s Law: Where is the Physics?

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

This is a guest post by Ugo Bardi. This post previously appeared at his English language blog, Casandra’s Legacy. Joseph Tainter’s interpretation of the cause of the collapse of civilisations is that social structures generate negative returns when they become … Continue reading →

Posted in Planning for the Future | Tagged , | 26 Comments

Peak oil and the third demographic transition: A preliminary model

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

This is a guest post by Dr. Gary Peters, retired geography professor and author of Population Geography. The growth of the human population cannot continue forever—there is a limit to our numbers, even if we cannot specify what that limit … Continue reading →

Posted in Food issues, Planning for the Future | Tagged , | 43 Comments

Is loss of electricity a risk for spent nuclear fuel?

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

The usual plan for spent nuclear fuel in the United States is to transfer it to a cooling pool and then after some time to transfer it to dry cask storage.  Eventually, the plan is to move it to a … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternatives to Oil, News Related Post | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Nuclear Options Going Forward

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

This post is being published by ASPO-USA in its newsletter today. We are at a crossroads with respect to nuclear energy, having discovered a new way (or several new ways) that nuclear plants can fail. How do we deal with … Continue reading →

Posted in Alternatives to Oil, News Related Post | Tagged , | 12 Comments

How close a link is there between oil price shocks and recession?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

I want to bring to the attention of readers a recent paper by James Hamilton, called Historical Oil Shocks (also here as a National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper). The paper seems to suggest an amazingly close connection between … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , | 9 Comments