Comments on: Peak Wood

By: DDDepressionnn

DDDepressionnn — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:14:25 +0000

There has come winter
It became cold and cloudy!
Mood very bad
Depression Begins

By: The Anthropik Network » A Short History of Western Civilization

The Anthropik Network » A Short History of Western Civilization — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 18:18:26 +0000

[…] Middle Ages seems very similar to our own “peak oil” problem, what we might call “peak wood.” As Richard Cowen writes: The situation was different in England and France. Much land had […]

By: Coal, World War & the Collapse of European Imperialism (The Anthropik Network)

Tue, 01 May 2007 13:55:55 +0000

[…] The problem I’ve glibly labeled “peak wood” brought down many ancient civilizations. These timber crises are very similar to the current “peak oil” theory in several ways. Forests still existed in all cases, but they were increasingly far away, and the energy cost of going out that far, chopping down the trees, and dragging them back to the nearest population centers, outweighed the energy the wood provided as a fuel. This is what happened to Cahokia, and at the end of the Bronze Age, and many other times throughout history. Sixteenth century Europe began to face a similar timber crisis, but where other civilizations had collapsed, Europe in general—and Britain in particular—had an alternative available. Though inferior, as the cost of timber rose, it became increasingly attractive. […]

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 16:39:37 +0000

Great article

By: Jason Godesky

Jason Godesky — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 17:32:41 +0000

I doubt the peopel of Mohendojaro really just “walked out,” either. In all likelihood, the transition was frought with all manner of conflict.

By: daan

daan — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 02:03:32 +0000

The ancient city of Mohendojaro in Pakistan is well-preserved. It and its people were not destroyed in war - it has been specualted they all simply left when it became too ineffective to walk an estimated 40km to get wood to bake the bricks from which the city was constructed. That, after all nearby forests were chopped down for this and other purposes.
Unfortunately, with peak oil looming, we all cannot just pack up and leave, voluntarily . . .

By: The Middle Ages & Roman Collapse: Similarities & Differences (The Anthropik Network)

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 04:08:38 +0000

[…] The High Middle Ages were by no means kept sustainable by this misery, however; it merely slowed their descent, as they ran into the hard, ecological limits Rome never reached. The crisis of the High Middle Ages was very similar to our own “peak oil” problem—it’s what we might call “peak wood.” The situation was different in England and France. Much land had been cleared for agriculture in Roman and again in medieval times, and the population was much denser than in mountain Germany and Bohemia. Although metal mining was never on the enormous scale of the Central European strikes, many small mines exploited tin, lead, copper, and iron deposits. All these ores were smelted with charcoal, and with heavy demands on the forests for building timbers for castles, cathedrals, houses, and ships, for building mills and most machinery, for barrels for storing food and drink, and fuel for the lime-burning, glass and brewing industries and for domestic fires, the English and French found that they were approaching a major fuel crisis. […]

By: Splitting the Atom (The Anthropik Network)

Splitting the Atom (The Anthropik Network) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 17:43:59 +0000

[…] More importantly, oil is not the only fuel that peaks.20 What the Hubbert curve essentially describes is a problem of diminishing returns. Uranium mining, too, is subject to the same trend. Uranium is widely distributed in the earth’s crust but only in minute quantities, with the exception of a few places where it has accumulated in concentrations rich enough to be uses as an ore. The main deposits of ore, in order of size, are in Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, the Russian Federation, the USA, and Uzbekistan. There are some very rich ores; concentrations as high as 1 percent have been found, but 0.1 percent (one part per thousand) or less is usual. Most of the usable “soft” (sandstone) uranium ore has a concentration in the range between 0.2 and 0.01 percent; in the case of “hard” (granite) ore, the usable lower limit is 0.02 percent. The mines are usually open-cast pits which may be up to 250m deep. The deeper deposits require underground workings and some uranium is mined by “in situ leaching”, where hundreds of tonnes of sulphuric acid, nitric acid, ammonia and other chemicals are injected into the strata and then pumped up again after some 5- 25 years, yielding about a quarter of the uranium from the treated rocks and depositing unquantifiable amounts of radioactive and toxic metals into the local environment and aquifers.21 […]

By: There’s Ethanol and then there’s Ethanol « EE/RE Investing

There’s Ethanol and then there’s Ethanol « EE/RE Investing — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:51:47 +0000

[…] If you don’t believe me, read this great article on “Peak Wood,” the cause of the iron age. […]

By: The Anthropik Network » Do you believe in magic?

The Anthropik Network » Do you believe in magic? — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 15:44:35 +0000

[…] Alternative fuels can reduce our fossil fuel use, and that can make civilization last a little longer. Whether that’s a good thing or not is a debate for a different time. The EROEI on ethanol is abysmal, and it’s unclear whether it can be significantly raised, because of the fossil fuel inputs of modern agriculture.5 Nuclear power plants using uranium can only give us a maximum of another 50 years; while thorium is a theoretically possibility that could extend that, we’ve yet to develop a reliable thorium reactor, and it’s unclear whether or not it’s even possible.6 All of these will become increasingly important as Peak Oil drives up the price of oil, but none of them can supplant our use of fossil fuels. So, the role of alternative fuels cannot be to save our civilization; at best, they will merely prolong our collapse. […]