Climate change and human responsibility

[Oling_Roachinen]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

So you agree, hydro capacity is mostly irrelevant.

No. What? I stated facts, nothing else.

[Scroopy Noopers]

My apologies. I’m an idiot. I see what you meant now

[CaptainCrunch]

Interesting look at Germany and also Kenya's green energy transition programs.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael.../#6ec60696ea2b

[Fuzz]

Over the past five years alone, the Energiewende has cost Germany €32 billion ($36 billion) annually, and opposition to renewables is growing in the German countryside.

Wow. That's crazy. I think citizens pay something like $0.35/kwh as well.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Interesting look at Germany and also Kenya's green energy transition programs.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael.../#6ec60696ea2b

...Writes the guy who runs a Nuclear Power Lobby Group....Weird, I wonder why he thinks that. We have to stop taking opinion pieces as news.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

...Writes the guy who runs a Nuclear Power Lobby Group....Weird, I wonder why he thinks that. We have to stop taking opinion pieces as news.

.......

Originally Posted by LA Flames Fan

Just presenting facts and calling out the stupid and erroneous people.

I wish more people would watch it, but they won't because facts don't matter to them.

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

...Writes the guy who runs a Nuclear Power Lobby Group....Weird, I wonder why he thinks that. We have to stop taking opinion pieces as news.

Did you bother to read the article? He is commenting on an article out of Der Spiegel, a German magazine.

[Fuzz]

He's not wrong though...Germany's experiment has been a costly failure. They should have kept nuclear and worked to eliminate coal, while encouraging oil and gas exploration to reduce dependence on Russia. Use wind and solar to fill gaps, not try to make it the primary energy source when it can't possibly work that way. The most valuable part about their experiment is a cautionary tale to other nations.

[Leeman4Gilmour]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Interesting look at Germany and also Kenya's green energy transition programs.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/michael.../#6ec60696ea2b

The new wind farm in Kenya, inspired and financed by Germany and other well-meaning Western nations, is located on a major flight path of migratory birds. Scientists say it will kill hundreds of endangered eagles

This is just dumb. Animal migration (elk, caribou, birds, etc.) is environmental impact assessment 101....anyone in oil sands knows that

[La Flames Fan]

What I'm rallying against here is that CC posted this article for what reason? To say that we shouldn't go forward with renewables because it costs too much?

Let's get this basis of fact out of the way: The effects of climate change are happening and will continue to get worse. It's going cost money to transition from carbon emitting power generators.

Now that we've established that...

Here are the Speigel Articles, the theme of those articles is the "failure" has come from government political will and inefficiency.

TL;DR - Germany's politicians haven't moved fast or efficiently enough.

But the sweeping idea has become bogged down in the details of German reality. The so-called Energiewende, the shift away from nuclear in favor of renewables, the greatest political project undertaken here since Germany's reunification, is facing failure. In the eight years since Fukushima, none of Germany's leaders in Berlin have fully thrown themselves into the project, not least the chancellor. Lawmakers have introduced laws, decrees and guidelines, but there is nobody to coordinate the Energiewende, much less speed it up. And all of them are terrified of resistance from the voters, whenever a wind turbine needs to be erected or a new high-voltage transmission line needs to be laid out.

A majority of Germans were once proud of the turn away from nuclear and toward renewables, a pride political leaders could have capitalized on.

But the grand transformation has lost its way. The expansion of wind parks and solar facilities isn't moving forward. There is a lack of grids and electricity storage -- but for the most part there is a lack of political will and effective management. The German government has dropped the ball.

The German government made a key mistake when it announced the end of the nuclear era in Germany eight years ago: It announced it was turning away from nuclear power, without simultaneously initiating the end of coal.

Wind turbines and solar panels were installed across the country -- but the coal-fired power plants kept operating. The government set up a clean energy system alongside the dirty one. But why? Because Berlin was afraid of do anything that might harm a single company or voter.

He's cherry-picking the article to focus on cost alone in a sizzler opinion piece headline.

Why do we need an opinion piece on an article? Because he wants to lobby for Nuclear (for what reason I'm curious). But he's positing that the cost is the reason it has failed, whereas the article clearly states that slow moving politicians and government inefficiency are the real problems.

Let me say, I'm not for or against Nuclear - but building power plants is as if not more expensive. Taking that argument out of his opinion piece article, what are we left with?

https://www.spiegel.de/international...a-1266586.html

https://www.spiegel.de/international...1266586-2.html

[Fuzz]

Or perhaps the politicians realized the reality of the situation, it's not possible to replace nuclear and coal with solar and wind. Not at the scale they need.

[CaptainCrunch]

jesus christ, I wasn't cherry picking anything at all, I thought it was an interesting article.

[Ark2]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

jesus christ, I wasn't cherry picking anything at all, I thought it was an interesting article.

I think he is referring to the guy that wrote the Forbes article, not you.

[The Fonz]

On average, a nuclear power plant produces as much energy as 3.1 million solar panels, or 430 wind turbines, and does so with only ~7% of the emissions of coal (solar is ~5%, wind is ~2%).

LFF, perhaps that is why he wants to lobby for Nuclear?

[Lanny_McDonald]

If we are going to chase more nuclear power, we need transformative technology there as well. We have to get away from our current reactors and move to smaller, more efficient reactors. Salt based reactors could be that silver bullet on the nuclear side of the solution. People have to recognize that the solution is going to be a combination of all technologies we currently have available to us, including fossil fuels. We need to find netter ways to use the tech we have, and then develop leaps in technology to address the gaps we currently see in the process to eliminate fossil fuels long term.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

jesus christ, I wasn't cherry picking anything at all, I thought it was an interesting article.

Yeah, sorry I was referring to this Michael Shellenberger.

[Fuzz]

Today is a good day to illustrate the challenges of solar and wind, and how they can't possibly be depended on. Take a look at current production:


http://ets.aeso.ca/ets_web/ip/Market...DReportServlet


Wind is providing 56 of 1445MW nameplate capacity. That's about 5% of what it is rated for. Looking at our only real solar facility, Brooks solar is providing 0 of 15 MW. So out of approximate demand of 10 000MW we get about 600MW from hydro, wind, and solar or about 6%.



So if we were to go all in on renewables, think of the capacity we would need installed, along with the batteries to cover days like today. I'm not saying these are useless, but there are huge challenges to overcome and we need to be realistic about it. We need reliable sources, and there just aren't a lot of options.

[cral12]

Tripping on Pyschedelics Could Help Climate Change

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/j...a6PWT4shfBrevk

[CaptainYooh]

Originally Posted by cral12

Tripping on Pyschedelics Could Help Climate Change

I am starting to believe that drugs will solve all of our problems in North America, eventually.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by CaptainYooh

I am starting to believe that drugs will solve all of our problems in North America, eventually.

If it would drastically reduce the population numbers in a very short amount of time, then yes.