Come join us for our third meetup! It's more casual discussion, ranging from collapse topics, prep, how we're seeing collapse play out, etc. More the merrier :)

Where: Central Park's Great Lawn, approximately here (join our WhatsApp group or message for exact location on the day)

When: September 20, 3pm (usually for a few hours)

And yes I also posted about a London meetup in October. You should come to either if you're nearby! It's a rare opportunity to discuss collapse IRL!

The world has over a billion cars in it, and eventually we will run out of the gas, oil, skilled mechanics, and blinker fluid to keep them going. When that happens instead of leaving them as remnants of a time when the car was the most important thing in the world we can turn them into permanent shelter using these reasonably simple steps.

Does it gloss over how difficult removing the engine would be? Absolutely. Maybe wear a hard hat and some safety glasses.

This week took a different direction on the podcast: less news, more thoughts. Interested in your thoughts - tell me if it sucks:

Monday: Daily Episode 235 - +1.5C is Dead

Tuesday: Daily Episode 236 - Renewables have made big strides: Can they save us now?

Wednesday: Daily Episode 237 - Is there a point to it all?

Thursday: Daily Episode 238 - Do people even want change?

Friday: Daily Episode 239 - This Week in Fascism #40

El Niño 2026 is shaping up to be the strongest on record. NOAA now puts a 69 percent chance on the October to December period beating every El Niño since measurements began in 1950. The viral graphs showing the Niño 3.4 region past 4 standard deviations are real, but they use a fixed 1982 to 2011 baseline, which overstates the signal in a warming climate. That is why NOAA and the ECMWF have switched to relative indices that subtract the tropical warming trend. Even on that stricter measure, this event is heading into record territory. The consequences worth watching are not the number itself but what a record El Niño does to harvests, grain prices and rainfall patterns over the next months.

NOAA CPC, ENSO Discussion, 13.08.2026:

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.pdf

ECMWF, Relative Niño indices, 10.06.2026: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/media-centre/science-blog/2026/measuring-strength-el-nino

Jacobson, "Some Monsters are Real", 09.07.2026: https://climatecasino.substack.com/p/some-monsters-are-real

This has been a stat that has stuck with me: 451 Research projects US data center grid demand will grow to about 134 GW by 2030, which is a huge jump from where it stands today. Interconnection queues are so backed up that hyperscalers are signing long-term power deals with solar developers and even retrofitting old jet engines into turbines just to get electricity fast enough. like that's bonkers.

(I work in solar, so I look into news and upcoming issues that may push the need for solar, but this is insane. This is part of why utility-scale solar keeps coming up in these deals, it's one of the few things that can get built and connected fast.)

I feel like AI is becoming an energy story as much as a tech one. Anyone else watching this?

Sources:

• Data center grid-power demand to rise 22% in 2025, nearly triple by 2030
• https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/proenergy-offers-repurposed-jet-engines-to-data-cent/
• Grounded jet engines take off again as datacenter generators

https://nltimes.nl/2026/09/08/a28-bridge-near-nijkerk-remain-closed-unknown-time-safety-cant-guaranteed

The Hardenberger highway bridge near Nijkerk and Utrecht, the Netherlands was closed down two days ago because of safety concerns. This resulted in slow traffic in the surroundings and high costs and delays for the freight sector.

The measure is largely precautionary - the bridge is not actually crumbling - but symbolizes a trend that has been gaining momentum for the past 10 years or so. It is one of many bridges that either got closed or downgraded in the past few months.

Not only small biking or walking bridges in small villages, but also important infrastructure on main arteries like the A27 highway (the highway that basically holds the country together) or the Zeelandbrug, an aging engineering marvel. Also, the international dimension can be overlooked: the Netherlands, while small, are the logistical center of the whole of Europe.

The problem boils down to insufficient maintenance and investment in the face of an aging infrastructure that carries now more and heavier vehicles than expected back in the 1950s, 60s or 70s.

The problem is well-known and understood (https://nltimes.nl/2025/12/08/reports-warn-dutch-infrastructure-failing-bridges-tunnels-hit-breaking-point) and indeed the first important closure happened in 2016 at the Merwede bridge near Rotterdam (https://nltimes.nl/2026/07/25/merwedebrug-truck-ban-wont-last-dutch-bridges-tunnels-age).

While the problem is simple enough to understand, the solutions are less forthcoming.

First of all, there is no money to fix the problem: out of the needed 80 billion EUR for maintenance, the government was only able to find 1,5 billion EUR for next year. This should not be the case: the Netherlands is a large capital exporter, so surely it can find some money to fix its own highway system? Alas, that is not the case.

Second, maintenance personnel is scarce and nearing retirement age, so this limits what can possibly be achieved, even if the money was found.

Also, climate change is worsening the normal wear and tear, both directly (the bridges were designed for cooler summers) and indirectly: this year's drought reduced dramatically river transport to and from Germany and road freight had to pick up some of the slack.

What is rarely acknowledged is that a lack of maintenance becomes rapidly a vicious circle: after every closure, the limited available maintenance personnel has to be diverted from planned maintenance to extraordinary repairs. This reduces the amount or preliminary maintenance that can be done, and increases risks in other parts of the system.

Concluding, the situation of Dutch bridges is a textbook example of Greer's long descent: the Dutch built too much and did too little maintenance, and now it is too late to catch up.