Alice Friedemann

Jordan Brown speaks with Alice Friedemann in an attempt to introduce her two books When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation from 2016, and Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative Energy from 2021—both very important works about peak oil, climate change, and energy.

energyskeptic.com

Alice Friedemann is a systems analyst, writer, and researcher on peak energy, resources, climate change, and the preservation of knowledge. She’s the creator of energyskeptic.com where she regularly writes.

Sections

Click on the time-codes below to seek to that section of the interview.

00:00 Introduction and Background
03:01 Grandfather and M. King Hubbert, 1950s, Hubbert’s Peak
04:29 Background as Systems Analyst, Globalisation
06:14 Trucks Are The Basis of Civilisation
08:23 What Happens When Trucks Stop Running
10:40 Battery Powered Tractors
11:35 Diesel, One Barrel of Oil = 4 Years of Human Muscle Work
13:17 Fossil Fuels Are Keeping ~6 Billion People Alive
17:48 Oil Makes So Much Stuff, Microchips
20:10 So Much of Our Knowledge is Stored on Computers
21:49 Peak Oil and Climate Change
24:57 Exponential Growth
29:45 IPCC and Exponential Growth
32:10 Conventional Oil, Fracking and Tar Sands
36:38 Some Problems with ‘Renewables’
40:39 Avoiding Facing Energy Decline, But Don’t Want Panic Either
47:40 Facing Reality
50:00 Cleaning Up The Mess

is an activist, artist, musician, independent film-maker and freelance journalist whose work focuses on the interface between the dominant culture and the real impact on people, society and the environment. He has won awards and industry accolades for his work, including the 2018 Edward Snowden Award, the 2017 Change Maker Award (NIFF), and the 2016 Honorary Award of the Ministry of Justice (Slovakia).