tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post2292152110135637575..comments2024-03-20T02:13:42.947-05:00Comments on real economics: Peak FrackingJonathan Larsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05217670446743983955noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4413935813892441553.post-63575030083153447882018-03-09T14:40:49.390-06:002018-03-09T14:40:49.390-06:00These days when I'm reading a non-fiction book...These days when I'm reading a non-fiction book -- and I like to read a lot about Big Science and Big Psychology, because I work in the psychiatric field -- I have an eye out for whether the author's premise takes Peak Oil into account. Almost never happens. Even in otherwise excellent works such as "Sapiens" by Yuval Hariri, the notion of resource constraints as a limiting factor of humanity's "progress" is sloughed off by technoutopian wishful thinking. "Humans are brilliant -- we'll figure something out! We always have." In part, the shale and fracking boomlets have allowed this. They're like a new North Sea or North Slope Alaska giganto oil field discovery that Kunstler laments the lack of. What I don't see in the popular press is that these fields fart out after three years or so, and that the EROEI is woeful. The concept of how much energy it take to GET energy is nowhere in articles in the New York Times, Bloomberg, etc. JHK is a welcome antidote to the blindness or wishfulness I encounter by writers who I respect otherwise. (Although he has gotten a bit cranky on the social justice warrior topic after he got slagged by some ninny at a university function.) I'm always looking for reasons to be optimistic about energy, which is why things such as your post about graphene pique my interest. Bukko Boomerangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02424677168216647964noreply@blogger.com