Professor Chris Rhodes

Latest articles from Professor

• Peak Soil: Are We Taking More Than the Earth Can Give?

  Published 15 April 2014 | viewed 14,218 times

  There is a tendency for humans to perceive ill occurrences as unconnected events, rather as the Biblical plagues of Egypt: water into blood, frogs, lice,…

• What Happens When the Oil Runs Out?

  Published 29 July 2013 | viewed 247,501 times

  Summary of a lecture by Professor Chris Rhodes to the Conway Hall Ethical Society, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London. 11.00 am, Sunday July 28th,…

• Governments Must Work together to Avoid a Peak Oil Scenario

  Published 19 February 2013 | viewed 16,096 times

  Decline in output from the world's oil fields is averaging 5% per year, with some speculation that we may have reached the global production limit…

• The Petroleum Rollercoaster

  Published 09 February 2013 | viewed 10,261 times

  I wrote the following in a previous posting but there are a number of points of issue, which I shall now address. In particular, the…

• Why EROEI Means Mining in Space will Never Work

  Published 26 January 2013 | viewed 12,443 times

  The prospect of exploration in space for minerals has been the substance of science fiction, but in the face of a rapid depletion of non-renewable…

• Low Energy Light Bulbs Not So "Green" After All?

  Published 24 January 2013 | viewed 30,499 times

  Making choices about the kind of light bulbs we should be using, on the simple basis of energy consumption, and hence carbon emissions, may be…

• New Fears Over Fracking Groundwater Contamination

  Published 31 December 2012 | viewed 19,082 times

  It is found that high concentrations of salts, including those of radium and barium, are present in the flowback waters from late-end fracking operations, lending…

• Peak Oil is Nonsense ... Because There's Enough Gas to Last 250 Years

  Published 10 December 2012 | viewed 20,245 times

  The title is a condensate of the latest rendition from Nigel Lawson, who served Margaret Thatcher’s government, both as Secretary of State for Energy and…

• BP to Use Desalinated Water to Enhance Oil Extraction Rates

  Published 03 December 2012 | viewed 6,753 times

  B.P. intends to use a desalination plant to reduce the salt content of seawater so that it can more effectively flush oil from the surfaces…

• The Population Boom: 10 Billion by the End of the Century

  Published 14 August 2012 | viewed 6,868 times

  There has been a highly successful run at the Royal Court Theatre, in London, not of a play in the usual form, but of a…

• Take Care, Water is not a Limitless Resource

  Published 13 August 2012 | viewed 12,681 times

  Cheap light crude oil production has already peaked and the resource will be all but gone within a decade. It is a matter of ebullient…

• Peak Minerals: Shortage of Rare Earth Metals Threatens Renewable Energy

  Published 30 July 2012 | viewed 45,060 times

  Not only are supplies of oil and natural gas under imminent threat of failing to meet demand for them, but so is a whole range…

• Burning Ultra-Low Sulphur Jet Fuel Could Actually Increase Global Warming

  Published 05 July 2012 | viewed 28,935 times

  In an effort to reduce acid emissions from the aviation industry, preventing an annual number of between 1,000 and 4,000 deaths, it is planned to…

• As Rock Phosphate Runs Out, What is More Important - Food Crops or Fuel Crops?

  Published 21 June 2012 | viewed 51,502 times

  World rock phosphate production is set to peak by 2030. Since the material provides fertilizer for agriculture, the consequences are likely to be severe, and…

• The Progress made in the Different Fields of Nuclear Fusion

  Published 09 June 2012 | viewed 126,786 times

  Feasible fusion power – the carrot before the donkey?When I was about 10, I recall hearing that nuclear fusion power would become a reality "in…

• Hopes Build for Thorium Nuclear Energy

  Published 29 February 2012 | viewed 9,683 times

  There is much written to the effect that thorium might prove a more viable nuclear fuel, and an energy industry based upon it, than the…

• Norway Hopes to Develop Thorium Nuclear Power

  Published 26 February 2012 | viewed 20,725 times

  Norway holds a resource of 170,000 tonnes of thorium, which amounts to 15% of the world’s total of 1.2 million tonnes. There is far more…

• Why Algal Biofuels May Never Hold the Key to the Future

  Published 19 February 2012 | viewed 71,395 times

  The depletion of world rock phosphate reserves will restrict the amount of food that can be grown, a situation that can only be compounded by…

• Regenerative Agriculture: Feeding the Future

  Published 14 February 2012 | viewed 7,515 times

  It is an illusion to think we can continue to use as much energy as we do now. No one can entirely rule-out that some…

• Methane Gas Hydrates - Vast Energy Resource or Ecological Disaster Awaiting?

  Published 01 February 2012 | viewed 18,354 times

  A vast and untapped resource of fuel? A contributor to global climate change? A submarine hazard and potential trigger of tsunami's? A cause of catastrophic…