Tag Archives: Joseph Tainter

Overly Simple Energy-Economy Models Give Misleading Answers

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Gail Tverberg

Does it make a difference if our models of energy and the economy are overly simple? I would argue that it depends on what we plan to use the models for. If all we want to do is determine approximately … Continue reading →

Posted in Financial Implications | Tagged , , , , | 1,528 Comments

Drilling Down: Tainter and Patzek tell the energy-complexity story

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Gail Tverberg

Joseph Tainter and Tadeusz Patzek are authors of a soon-to-be-released book called Drilling Down: The Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma. This book is part of Charles Hall’s Briefs in Energy series with the publisher Springer. An earlier book … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy policy, News Related Post | Tagged , , , | 27 Comments

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