Month: June 2016

David J.C. MacKay: Thank You and Goodbye

I was very sad to learn that David J.C. MacKay passed away on April 14, 2016.

When I first learned of peak oil 8 years ago I went deep into renewable energy technologies looking for a solution. One of the people that influenced me the most was David J.C. MacKay with his book “Sustainable Energy – without the hot air”. David was a breath of fresh air with his unbiased scientific analysis of data rather than the fact-free blather that is commonly used to support some favored position.

His book is available to download for free here.

David convinced me that it is impossible to maintain our current lifestyles with renewable energy. We must dramatically reduce our total consumption and we would be wise to do it proactively before nature forces us.

Here are a couple excellent talks by David….

Here is the last interview with David a few days before he died. I find it interesting that on his death bed the thing that fascinated him most was our denial of reality. It’s sad he did not read Varki before he died.

And lastly a nice obituary by Mark Lynas.

Thank you David. You had a great mind and worked hard to make the future better.

Brexit Breeze?

I have a hunch that on June 23 the UK will vote to exit the EU and that this might generate enough of a breeze to destabilize our very shaky house of cards.

Citizens usually vote for whatever choice they think will give them the most stuff.

Since the UK has more seed corn to eat than the poorer nations of Europe it might decide to go it alone.

I suspect that UK citizens do not understand how unstable our house of cards is and so might inadvertently trigger a chain reaction.

We’ll see. I’ve been wrong many times in the past.

A Deadly Recipe: One Part Ignorance, One Part Denial

I’ve been paying a little more attention these days to what the main stream media thinks is going on.

They report on government data that says the economy has recovered from the 2008 crisis. They also report on the rise of Trump that indicates many citizens are struggling and angry.

They know that incomes have stagnated while life’s expenses continue to rise but they have no clue what is causing this.

They don’t even have an intelligent theory.

On other important matters obvious to anyone that cares to look such as the climate spiraling out of control, the 6th great extinction of species, and human overshoot starting to bite in some of the weaker countries, they say nothing.

It’s quite amazing.

It seems likely we will collapse with most people having no idea what is causing their pain.

One part ignorance and one part genetic denial is a deadly recipe for war and civil unrest.