Newsletter XLV 2024
November 3th to ...
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Current news+ | Background knowledge |
The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the events were never published through official channels, so this information could only be made available to the public in a roundabout way. The list of incidents in the PDF file is therefore not 100 % identical with "INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities", but represents an addition.
4 November 2004 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Balakovo, RUS
10 November 1950 (Broken Arrow) B-50 Riviére-du-Loup in Canada
11 November 1983 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
16 November 2001 (INES ? Class.?) High Flux Reactor, Petten, NLD
19 November 2003 (INES 2) Nuclear factory La Hague, FRA
19 November 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Gundremmingen, GER
20 November 1959 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Oak Ridge, USA
22 November 2002 (INES 2) NPP Tihange, BEL
28 November 2007 (INES 2) NPP Asco, ESP
29 November 1970 (INES 3 NAMS 2,5) Nuclear factory Windscale/Sellafield, GBR
29 November 1955 (INES 4) Research reactor EBR-I, USA
30 November 1975 (INES 5) NPP Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad, USSR
We are always looking for up-to-date information. Anyone who can help, please send a message to:
nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
9. November
World Health Organization:
WHO calls for emergency aid for Gaza after warnings of famine
WHO chief Ghebreyesus is calling for an immediate increase in aid supplies for the Gaza Strip. A food initiative had warned of an imminent famine.
After international experts warned of an imminent famine in the embattled north of the Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling for immediate assistance. The latest assessment by a Rome-based food crisis analysis initiative is "deeply alarming," wrote WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Platform X. "We call for an immediate increase and secure access for humanitarian assistance - especially food and medicine for severe malnutrition - within days, not weeks."
[...] The United States had previously threatened to restrict military aid to Israel
The warning comes shortly before the expiration of a 13-day deadline set by the United States on October 30, within which Israel must improve the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Otherwise, according to the US government, US military aid to its most important ally in the Middle East could be restricted...
8. November
Nuclear waste dump | Asse mine | radioactive salt water
Asse nuclear storage facility: Miners discover radioactive salt water
Miners discovered contaminated water during drilling at the dilapidated Asse II nuclear waste storage facility on Friday. The Federal Agency for Final Storage (BGE) is puzzling over its origin.
According to BGE, radioactive hydrogen (tritium) and caesium-137 were found in the saline solution. The measured values were 15.000 becquerels of tritium and 7 becquerels of caesium-137 per liter. The unit becquerel measures the activity, one becquerel corresponds to one radioactive decay per second. The Federal Office for Safety in Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) and the State Mining Office (LBEG) were informed of the discovery, the BGE announced on Friday.
BGE: Water does not come from areas with radioactive waste
According to the report, the salt water was found at a depth of 700 meters, i.e. above the main storage levels for nuclear waste at 725 and 750 meters. The solution could therefore not have come from the areas with radioactive waste, the BGE continues. The authority also rules out storage chamber 8a on the 511-meter level as the source of the salt water, as this chamber is located in the east of the mine. The salt water, on the other hand, was collected in the west. The BGE suspects that the contaminated water could have come from previous mining work carried out by the operators before 2009. The company will investigate the origin of the water...
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United States | Democracy | Prosperity
Donald Trump's election victory
Trump's economic policy will destroy prosperity
In Germany, major reforms have often only been made possible by a crisis. The election of Donald Trump makes a change of course more likely
Donald Trump's election victory is a shock; the political, social, economic and, above all, security consequences could be dramatic. In a democracy, we must respect the election result. Europe must now learn the lessons from this election and initiate a drastic change of course. This applies in particular to Germany.
Donald Trump leaves no doubt that he wants to weaken democratic institutions. The majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives makes this easier for him. But even if he will be more successful in his second presidency, we should trust in the strength of US democracy. Even the most powerful man in the world cannot rule against the people, but must unite them. US democracy has strong checks and balances that will hopefully prevent great damage.
Trump stirs up fears
Trump also won the election through populist and fascist methods: he systematically plays vulnerable groups off against each other to mobilize voters, even those who will suffer most from his policies. He stokes fears with conspiracy theories and lies to discredit opponents and gain support for absurd political measures. This shows that US democracy must reform itself so that in future informed voters make decisions, not manipulated ones.
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Brazil | nuclear business | Nuclear deal | Open letter | petition
nuclear agreement between Germany and Brazil
50-year-old nuclear legacy
Brazil was still under military dictatorship when the Federal Republic of Germany promised know-how for nuclear plants. Associations are urging that the contract be finally terminated.
Göttingen taz | It will soon be 50 years old. The "Agreement between the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Federal Republic of Germany on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy" was signed on June 27, 1975. It came into force on November 18 of the same year and can be terminated every five years. And now is the time. This is what an alliance of 30 organizations - including the environmental association BUND, the medical peace organization IPPNW and the anti-nuclear initiative broadcast - wrote in an open letter to the federal government.
[...] In 2023 and 2024 alone, there were three permits for the export of uranium fuel rods from Lingen in Lower Saxony to Brazil. The last shipment left Lingen on May 21, 2024.
basis for current deals
"The ancient nuclear agreement with Brazil is still the basis for regular nuclear deals between Germany and Brazil," says Matthias Eickhoff from the Münster Action Alliance against Nuclear Plants, which co-signed the letter. "Germany continues to enable the construction and operation of Brazilian nuclear plants. After 50 years, this should finally come to an end."
IPPNW co-chair Angelika Claußen says: "We must never forget that every nuclear facility is a potentially decisive step towards military use." Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons are closely linked, "and a country like Germany that has decided to phase out nuclear power should withdraw from all areas of this industry in favor of a peaceful world without nuclear weapons."
Depending on how the government crisis develops, the appeal could still have a chance. In mid-October, Parliamentary State Secretary for the Environment Jan-Niclas Gesenhues told the Bundestag that the federal government was considering termination and was in contact with the Brazilian government on this matter.
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United States | Billionaires | campaign donations
After the US election
Which billionaires bet on Trump – and are now profiting
Billions of US dollars flowed into Trump's election campaign, especially from a few billionaires. How they could profit after the victory.
This year's US election will be the most expensive in history. According to estimates by the OpenSecrets platform, it will cost around 15,9 billion euros. A large part of this money comes from a few billionaires - and those who invested in Trump now want something in return. The money mainly ended up in so-called PACs and Super PACs, the political action committees typical for the USA. They are used to collect money in order to then distribute it to candidates, although the Super PACs can only support them indirectly, for example by financing the purchase of advertising spots. Most Super PACs can be assigned to a company or a political group.
Timothy Mellon
The man who gave the most money to Trump is Timothy Mellon. His total donations officially amount to around 197 million US dollars. He is the heir to a banking dynasty - his great-grandfather founded the Mellon National Bank.
[...] Elon Musk
While others distribute their donations quietly and secretly, Elon Musk never does anything without a big bang. The richest man in the world is one of Trump's biggest donors. He was previously one of his biggest critics. It was only after the attempted assassination of Trump in July that he announced his full support for the Republican on his social media service X. His donations rose to over 132 million US dollars shortly before the election. More than half of the donations went to the Trump-focused Super PAC "America PAC". Musk has also donated directly to the Republican Party.
[...] Miriam Adelson
Miriam Adelson is putting everything on the line with her support of Donald Trump. The doctor has been one of the richest women in the world since she became a casino heiress after the death of her husband. The 79-year-old has a long history of donations with the Republicans, together with her late husband Sheldon Adelson. Sheldon Adelson donated more than half a billion dollars to the Republicans before his death. Around 122 million are registered under the couple's name at OpenSecrets...
7. November
Gier | Cum-Ex | Tax evasion | Cum Cum
tax evasion of 343 million euros
Manager makes tearful confession in Munich cum-ex trial
Together with his colleague, he is said to have defrauded the state of hundreds of millions: With a voice choked with tears, a fund manager confesses his actions. It felt "a bit like Monopoly" to him.
An accused fund manager confessed and apologized in tears. According to their defense attorneys, he and his co-accused colleague largely admit the charges in the first Munich cum-ex trial. A total of 343 million euros in damages are said to have been caused. They now face prison sentences of several years.
Both men made big mistakes when they committed the crimes around 15 years ago, the defense admitted. Today they are left with a financial and personal mess. The fund manager read out his confession that morning, partly with tears in his voice. He now asks himself why he took part back then, after all he was already financially secure and had a happy family, said the father and grandfather of several children.
[...] According to the prosecution, the two men are said to have received around 16 million euros each for their involvement in the crime. The defense claims a lower sum, while the confessed fund manager claims about half that amount.
The defendants are by no means the only ones, there are various other cases. Overall, the state is said to have been cheated out of a double-digit billion sum through this scam. The investigation and prosecution will probably take years. Further charges are also expected in Munich.
So the two defendants pocketed between 16 and 32 million. Who pocketed the remaining 311 million?
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Arms trade | Embargo | Machine Tools
sniper rifles produced
German convicted of supplying weapons to Russian manufacturers
In 2015, despite the EU embargo, a Stuttgart businessman delivered several machines to Russian weapons manufacturers. They manufactured sniper rifles for the war in Crimea. The Stuttgart district court has now sentenced the businessman to a long prison sentence.
A 56-year-old man in Baden-Württemberg has been sentenced to seven years in prison for supplying machines to a Russian weapons manufacturer. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court found it proven that the man had supplied six machine tools and accessories to the Russian weapons manufacturer in 2015, the court announced. In doing so, he violated the European Union's embargo on Russia imposed in 2014.
[...] According to the verdict, the defendant earned 2,1 million euros from the deal, and the Swiss holding company earned around three million euros. The court ordered the confiscation of both sums. The 56-year-old, who testified during the trial but did not admit the allegations, was arrested in France in August 2023 and extradited to Germany, and has been in custody since then.
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MIC | Armaments | Record profits
arms giant
“Growth like we’ve never had before”: Rheinmetall records record profits
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Rheinmetall's share price has more than quintupled. The latest business figures underline this success.
The consequences of the war in Ukraine are an increasingly strong growth driver for Germany's largest defense company, Rheinmetall. As the company announced in Düsseldorf, group sales rose by 36 percent to 6,3 billion euros in the first nine months of this year.
The operating result even shot up by 72 percent to 705 million euros - the arms manufacturer's business has thus become significantly more profitable than before. The order books are fuller than ever, the order backlog now stands at 52 billion euros - this does not only include specific orders, but also framework agreements and other agreements that will probably lead to orders.
[...] Rheinmetall manufactures tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft guns, ammunition and military trucks. Its military goods are not only used directly in Ukraine, but are also bought by NATO countries that feel threatened since Russia's attack and are therefore investing significantly more money in their armies than before. Rheinmetall's headquarters are in Düsseldorf and its largest plant is in Unterlüß in Lower Saxony.
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Spain | Costs | Climate damage | Severe weather
Costs of the flood disaster
Billions washed away
The storm disaster in Spain has caused enormous damage. This is further evidence of how expensive failure to protect the climate can be. Studies paint a dramatic picture in this case – for all regions of the world.
Car graveyards in the streets, houses covered in mud, many of them uninhabitable, bridges ready for demolition, railway lines unusable for weeks and months. More than a week after the extreme rainfall in southeast Spain, which claimed over 200 lives, the economic damage is becoming increasingly clear. There are of course no exact figures yet, but one thing is already clear: the sum at stake is in the high double-digit billions.
The government of the Valencia region, which has been hit hardest by the storm, has announced a first emergency program with 136 measures worth 31,4 billion euros. This sum corresponds roughly to the entire annual budget of the autonomous province.
The central government in Madrid also announced an aid package of 10,6 billion euros "as a first step" - in the form of direct aid and guarantees for households and companies. It is foreseeable that the costs will ultimately be significantly higher.
The Valencia Chamber of Commerce estimates that almost a third of the province's population has been affected by the storm, or around 850.000 people. It is estimated that the shutdown caused by the floods is costing the region's economy 200 million euros every week...
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United States | Prices and Customs duties will rise
Trump voters face a rude awakening
Anger over high gasoline and food prices was a key voting issue. Trump's higher tariffs are making things worse.
According to US media, inflation - higher prices for everyday goods - was the main reason for 60 percent of Trump voters to vote for Trump. Immigration and other issues played a far less important role.
What Trump voters overlooked: Donald Trump's policies will cause prices to rise even more than Kamala Harris' announced policies. Trump voters have obviously not informed themselves enough about the consequences of Trump's announced tariff policy. According to the vast majority of economists, this policy will fuel inflation. The lower and middle classes are particularly affected by the higher prices.
[...] Trump claims that foreign companies would lower their prices accordingly, so that consumers in the US would notice little or nothing. This contradicts all historical experience and the assessments of practically all economists.
Economics professor and NYT columnist Paul Krugman noted that it is clear to the majority of economists that tariffs generally lead to correspondingly higher prices for consumers.
The bottom line is that higher tariffs and cuts in corporate and income taxes would have "negative effects" on the 60 percent of the population with lower incomes and "extremely positive effects" on the richest 1 percent. Krugman: "Neither China nor other foreign countries are paying for the tariffs. The burden falls primarily on the poor and the working class in the USA." ...
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Traffic light | Transport Minister Wissing | Non-party
Break in the coalition
Wissing leaves the FDP - and remains transport minister
The traffic light coalition has failed. However, FDP Transport Minister Volker Wissing remains in the government. He has announced his resignation from the party and intends to continue as non-party transport minister.
Despite the breakdown of the traffic light coalition, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing wants to remain in office until the planned new elections and is leaving the FDP. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) asked him whether he was prepared to continue in office under the new conditions, Wissing said in Berlin. He had thought about it and told Scholz that he was.
Wissing wants to be part of the government as an independent in the future, he said. "I don't want to be a burden on my party." He therefore informed party leader Christian Lindner that he was leaving the FDP. "I am not distancing myself from the basic values of my party and I don't want to join another party." This is a personal decision that reflects his idea of responsibility. "I want to stay true to myself." Wissing was previously the state chairman of his party in Rhineland-Palatinate.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr had announced the evening before that all ministers of his party wanted to submit their resignations to the Federal President...
6. November
Traffic light coalition | Finance Minister Lindner | New elections
Scholz dismisses Finance Minister Lindner
Traffic light shutdown and the consequences
The traffic light coalition is history. Chancellor Olaf Scholz has fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner and accused him of irresponsibility. Lindner sees a "calculated break in the coalition". New elections are to be held in March.
The divided traffic light coalition is at an end. After a dramatic meeting of the coalition leaders, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP). The background to this is a bitter dispute over economic and budgetary policy. Early elections are now to be held in March.
Scholz wants to achieve this through the vote of confidence in accordance with Article 68 of the Basic Law. The Federal Chancellor can then apply to the German Bundestag to express its confidence in him - in the expectation that Parliament will not do so, meaning that he will not get a majority. The Chancellor can - but does not have to - link this to a specific legislative proposal, currently for example to the Collective Bargaining Act, which the FDP rejects. If the Chancellor does not get a majority, he can ask the Federal President to dissolve the Bundestag. The President can then dissolve the Bundestag within 68 days in accordance with Article 1 Paragraph 1 Sentence 21 of the Basic Law. The decision is at the discretion of the Federal President. If he dissolves the Bundestag, new elections must be held within 39 days in accordance with Article 60 of the Basic Law. LTO has compiled further legal options after the coalition has broken down here.
Scholz wants to ask the vote of confidence in the Bundestag on January 15. New elections are then to take place by the end of March at the latest
[...] Against the backdrop of global political crises, Economics Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) had warned: “This is the worst time for the government to fail.”
The President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Moritz Schularick, wrote on Platform X of perhaps the most difficult moment in the history of the Federal Republic. "In addition to the internal structural crisis, there are now massive foreign trade and security policy challenges for which we are not prepared." Germany must invest massively in European defense capacities in the short term and move forward with France and other willing partners.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has already called for more money for the Bundeswehr and points to Russia's rapid rearmament under Vladimir Putin. "Russian industry produces more weapons and ammunition in three months than the entire European Union does in a year. And we must expect that Putin is willing and ready to use his armed forces," Pistorius told dpa.
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United States | Renewable energies | Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
"Process in full swing"
Trump cannot stop renewable energy boom
When he returns to the White House, Donald Trump wants to refocus national energy policy on fossil fuels. However, some experts believe that the boom in renewable energy in the USA will continue, not least because many of Trump's allies benefit.
Donald Trump's return to the White House is likely to refocus the US national energy policy on maximizing oil and natural gas production. However, experts say the current boom in renewable energy in the US is unlikely to slow down significantly. According to the Department of Energy, solar and wind are the fastest-growing areas of electricity production. "I don't think a President Trump can slow the turnaround," says energy economist Ed Hirs of the University of Houston. "This process is already well underway."
One reason for this is technological advances and other developments that have significantly reduced the costs of solar modules and other systems in recent years - the economic factor.
[...] As research published in October revealed, many of Trump's allies benefit directly or indirectly from IRA investments in solar energy, electric cars, carbon storage, hydrogen technology and other fields. The best known is probably Elon Musk, whose car company Tesla also benefits from the IRA. The list of at least seven close allies, campaign donors or their companies presented by Reuters also includes Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
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Nuclear waste | CDU / CSU | Search for a repository
Search for a final storage facility and the CDU
The truly eternal life
The search for a final storage facility will probably take us another 50 years. Unless the CDU comes to power. Then it will take even longer.
This process took four years: In autumn 2020, the Federal Agency for Final Storage presented a map showing possible locations for a nuclear waste repository. According to this map, 54 percent of the German underground was suitable in principle. Now - four years later - research has continued. Now only 44 percent is suitable.
Which is of course far too much. What is being sought is the right half of a percent: a rock formation that permanently encloses 27.000 cubic meters of highly radioactive waste. The legacy of 60 years of nuclear power in Germany will continue to radiate at a lethal level for another million years, which is why the storage facility must be safely sealed off for a million years. To get a feel for this time period: the oldest known grave in Central Europe is around 22.000 years old, the oldest traces of Homo sapiens are 300.000 years old.
60 years of benefit versus a million years of damage – as if this calculation were not absurd, the Union wants to put the shut down German nuclear power plants back on the grid.
[...] The Union wants to go into the federal election as an advocate of nuclear power. Well, hallelujah! Are Christians confusing "eternal life" with endless, deadly radioactive waste? If the Union has nothing better to offer for the problems of the present than the mistakes of the past, one can only be terrified for Germany's future.
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Orders | Demand | Economy | Foreign trade
Industrial orders rise, economists fear short-term recovery due to Trump
It is a development "that finally gives us hope": German industrial companies have recently been able to book significantly more orders. But economists fear that this will soon be over again under a US President Trump.
German industry saw an unexpectedly strong increase in new business in September. Orders in September rose by 4,2 percent compared to the previous month, the strongest increase since June. The Federal Statistical Office announced this on Wednesday. In August, there was the largest decline in orders since the beginning of the year, at a revised 5,4 percent.
Domestic business climbed by 3,6 percent in September, while foreign orders increased by 4,4 percent. Even without the highly fluctuating large orders, orders increased noticeably by 2,2 percent.
The positive development of demand, particularly from abroad, in the third quarter, together with other economic data such as the Ifo index, "suggests that the industrial economy will bottom out at the end of the year," the Federal Ministry of Economics announced.
The figures are "a development that finally gives hope for a revival in the manufacturing sector," said Jens-Oliver Niklasch of LBBW. "However, with Donald Trump's election victory looming, the wind is likely to blow more strongly in the face of domestic industry soon. If we take Trump at his word, then German exports to the USA are likely to come under pressure in 2025 due to import tariffs." ...
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United States | US presidential election | Heritage Foundation
Election winner Trump promises Golden Age for the USA
He promises to “fix everything” and sees himself as the embodiment of the will of the people: “Something like this has never happened before in this country, and perhaps even beyond.”
Donald Trump will almost certainly be the next president of the USA, Kamala Harris no longer has a chance. In conservative America, she was at a disadvantage from the start as a woman and as a person of color. Trump is already celebrating himself as a winner before the official election results are in. In addition, the Democrats have lost their majority in the Senate and will probably also be in the minority in the House of Representatives.
Trump can therefore rule for the next four years, unless there is resistance from the Republicans themselves.
[...] There will be panic in Berlin because they have tied themselves too closely to Biden and the Democrats. Now they are probably alone with Europe on the side of Ukraine and will have to massively rearm in order to keep Trump and NATO on board. If there is no quick reorientation, this will be extremely expensive and will require new borrowing and austerity measures in the social sector. Things could get unsettled before the election year if the government does not collapse beforehand.
It is also expected that Trump will enter the economic war again and impose high tariffs, which will hurt the economies of Europe and China. It is also clear that climate, species and environmental protection will no longer play a role under the "drill-drill-drill" president. It is questionable whether Trump can be kept in check again by the "deep state", as he called it. Ministries and authorities will probably be purged and filled with Trump loyalists according to the Heritage Foundation's "Project 2025" plan...
5. November
CO2 | Greenhouse gas | Warming
Physicists have deciphered the secret of the greenhouse gas
Researchers now know how carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere. About the powerful effect of the tiny molecule.
More CO₂ in the atmosphere makes the earth warmer - the connection behind man-made climate change is well known. The Swedish physicist Svante Arrhenius proved it as early as 1896. It is all the more remarkable that until 2024 it was unclear exactly how this works. A team led by geophysicist Robin Wordsworth from Harvard University has discovered which quantum properties cause the molecule to warm the atmosphere.
In principle, the scientists have discovered that CO₂ can vibrate in an unusual way. "A seemingly random resonance in an otherwise ordinary three-atom molecule," the authors write in their paper.
[...] Now Wordsworth's team has understood how other wavelengths also get caught in the molecule - namely in a so-called vibrational quantum transition. As if suspended from a spring, the oxygen atoms pulsate rhythmically away from the carbon in the middle. But a trick is needed to make this work. The Earth's thermal radiation does not actually have enough energy to make the atoms fidget in this way.
This is where the special feature of the CO₂ molecule comes into play: the two quantum transitions reinforce each other. The rhythm of the rotation supports the springing of the oxygen particles. Because the two states fit together so well, they mix. And the combination of these excited states only needs a little less or more energy than the rotation itself. This means that a CO₂ molecule can absorb a wider range of thermal radiation and therefore heat up the Earth's atmosphere so effectively.
The study's lead author, Robert Wordsworth, told Quanta Magazine: "It felt incredible when we realized that everything fit together. The result finally shows us how directly quantum mechanics is connected to the bigger picture."
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Right-wing extremists | Saxony | Raid
Raid against suspected Nazi terror group: AfD local politician among those arrested
In a raid, the Federal Prosecutor's Office arrested eight suspected right-wing extremists in Saxony and Poland. The group is said to have called itself "Saxon Separatists". Among those arrested is an AfD city councilor and treasurer of the Young Alternative in Saxony.
Berlin. The Federal Prosecutor's Office has arrested eight suspected members of a right-wing extremist terrorist organization in Saxony and Poland. At the same time, around 20 properties were searched, the Karlsruhe authority announced.
According to information from the RND and the "Leipziger Volkszeitung" (LVZ), one of those arrested is the AfD local politician Kurt Hättasch, who sits on the Grimma city council for the party and is also a district board member in the AfD district association in Leipzig. Hättasch is also treasurer of the AfD's youth group Junge Alternative in Saxony. As the LVZ reports, Hättasch - according to officially unconfirmed information from security circles - appeared in front of the police officers in the morning with a long gun. A police officer then fired two warning shots, it was said. The accused suffered a broken jaw and is currently undergoing surgery. Heavily armed police officers stood in front of the dental, eye and ENT clinic of the Leipzig University Medical Center on Tuesday. How the injury came about and further details of the incident are to be clarified by interviewing witnesses.
Kevin R., who was also arrested, is also involved in local politics for the AfD, representing Hättasch at meetings of the advisory board for culture, youth and sports of the city council in Grimma.
According to RND information, the suspects Jörg and Jörn S. are the sons of a well-known Austrian right-wing extremist who was the leader of a neo-Nazi fraternities in the Austrian district of Krems-Land in the 1990s and a member of a paramilitary right-wing extremist group...
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Emissions | Greenhouse gases | Forests | Carbon sinks
Because of heat: Forests no longer absorb our greenhouse gases
2023 is the hottest year on record. And the first in which the forest no longer neutralized our greenhouse gases.
Oceans, forests, soils and other natural carbon sinks used to buffer about half of all human greenhouse gas emissions. In 2023, things were different. Forests and soils showed massive weaknesses in storing our excess carbon, an international team of researchers found.
At the Mauna Loa measuring station in Hawaii, the increase in CO2 was 3,4 ppm, 86 percent higher than the previous year's value. However, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels had only increased by 0,6 percent worldwide. The amount of carbon absorbed on land had temporarily collapsed, preliminary results showed.
The forests no longer function
This unprecedented decline in land-based CO2 utilization was due to forests, plants and soils almost no longer absorbing carbon, the study concluded. The only tropical forest that was still absorbing carbon was the Congo Basin.
The Amazon, once called the "lungs of the earth," lost its function as a carbon sink in 2023 due to deforestation, drought and El Niño events and temporarily became a source of emissions. And the tropical forests of Southeast Asia are now a source of carbon due to increasing agriculture.
Forecasts may be too optimistic
Scientists have long pointed out the importance of natural carbon sinks. Without this buffer, the climate crisis would be far more serious. Climate models take into account that most CO2 sinks absorb less carbon dioxide as the earth warms, writes the Guardian in a summary. Carbon emissions from the soil will also increase by 40 percent by the end of the century...
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Sweden | Baltic Sea | Radar
fear of attacks
Sweden stops wind power projects in the Baltic Sea
For security reasons, Sweden's government has rejected the construction of several wind farms in the Baltic Sea. According to the armed forces, the facilities could make the country's defense more difficult.
Sweden's government is opposed to the construction of 13 planned offshore wind farms for safety reasons. The government in Stockholm announced that it would not issue permits for the construction and operation of the farms.
The reason for the cancellation is that, according to the Swedish armed forces, the offshore wind turbines would, among other things, interfere with sensors and radars and thus impair the country's ability to defend itself. For example, enemy cruise missiles or submarines could be detected later or with less accuracy, warned Defense Minister Pål Jonson.
[...] The planned plants were to extend off the Swedish east coast from the largely autonomous Finnish archipelago of Åland down to the Öresund near Denmark, including several wind farms north of Rügen. Only one other wind farm on the Swedish west coast has now been given the green light. Ten other applications for the expansion of offshore wind power are currently on the Swedish government's table - it is still unclear whether they will receive approval.
It is shocking that the technicians are not able to detect and eliminate the typical radar signals of the wind turbines and install the listening sensors in front of the turbines!
Much more likely is: MIC doesn't want windmills, but nuclear power plants; and lies can never be stupid enough.
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Renewables | Electricity production | Pumped storage
First test for energy storage on the seabed
Submarine pumped storage power plant to be tested off the coast of California from 2026
Next step for underwater energy storage: In the future, hollow spheres lying on the seabed will absorb excess electricity from wind and solar energy - as submarine pumped storage. After a successful prototype test in Lake Constance, preparations are now underway for the first spherical storage facility in the sea. In 2026, a ten-meter hollow concrete sphere including a pump will be installed at a depth of 600 to 800 meters off the Californian coast.
The fluctuating power production is one of the biggest problems with solar and wind energy: on days with lots of wind and sunshine, systems have to be switched off regularly to prevent the power grid from becoming overloaded - this makes electricity expensive in this country and means that urgently needed energy goes unused. However, energy storage could help, for example in the form of large batteries, chemical storage, Carnot batteries or pumped storage.
Water pressure as a storage helper
"Pumped storage power plants are particularly well suited to storing electricity for several hours or even days," explains Bernhard Ernst from the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE. However, these storage facilities require suitable water reservoirs and a lot of space, so their expansion potential is limited. However, underwater pumped storage facilities in the form of large hollow spheres on the bottom of lakes or the coastal ocean could provide a solution.
The principle behind it: To store electricity, excess electricity is used to pump the previously water-filled sphere empty against the surrounding water pressure. To retrieve the stored energy, a valve is opened and the water is allowed to flow back into the sphere. This inflow, driven by the water pressure, drives a turbine, which generates usable electricity again. How well the principle of such sphere storage works has already been demonstrated in a first field test with three-meter hollow spheres in 2016. Bodensee, demonstrated ...
4. November
Energy policy | CDU / CSU | SMR
The Union wants to return to nuclear power
In a five-point paper, the Bundestag faction is revising its energy policy – and is toying with the idea of restarting shut-down nuclear power plants.
The permits are there, the work is underway. In Neckarwestheim 2, Isar 2 and Emsland, the program is now called dismantling. In those three nuclear power plants that were finally taken off the grid in mid-April last year, after a final delay of three and a half months. Really final?
Maybe not, if the CDU and CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag has its way. They are holding an energy congress this Tuesday, and the focus is to be on a "new energy agenda for Germany". The corresponding paper, which was first reported on by the Bild newspaper, is available to the SZ. It names five "cornerstones" for the future energy supply, the first of which is nuclear energy. The phase-out in April 2023 was an "ideologically motivated wrong decision", it says. And if possible, the last three nuclear power plants should be put back on the grid. It should be clarified "as quickly as possible" whether restarting "is still possible with reasonable technical and financial effort".
[...] And that will be difficult. However, the group also has a plan B: they want to participate in research and development of new types of reactors and small modular reactors, they say. At the moment, however, the latter only exists on paper.
[...] At least the Union can draw on experience: in 2009 it had already campaigned for a return to nuclear power. In autumn 2010 it and its coalition partner, the FDP, extended the operating times of the 17 nuclear power plants in Germany at the time. But just six months later, after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, it sealed the end of nuclear power - including for the three reactors that it now wants to give a third chance.
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Search for a repository | Location regions
Nuclear waste storage facilities in Germany:
Possible areas for nuclear waste storage further narrowed down
The Federal Agency for Final Storage has limited the potential areas for nuclear waste to 44 percent of the country. Large parts of northern Bavaria are therefore unsuitable.
There is no end in sight yet, and yet: The search for a final storage facility for radioactive nuclear waste in Germany has made some progress: The Federal Agency for Final Storage (BGE) has further narrowed down potentially suitable areas. According to BGE's estimates, 44 percent of Germany's land area is now suitable for final storage, which is ten percent less than in 2020.
In addition, BGE announced that it would now provide annual information on the current status of the search for a final repository. "This way, the public can always see which areas we have already assessed for safety," said BGE CEO Iris Graffunder. An interactive map is intended to make the results to date visible. This also provides a justification for the suitability decision for each area, for example due to the nature of the rock there. So far, around 18 percent of the sub-areas have been classified as unsuitable or of little suitability.
[...] In the further process, selected areas are to be narrowed down to a few location regions in order to move on to the next examination phase.
The aim is the permanent storage of 27.000 cubic meters of highly radioactive waste from more than 60 years of nuclear power in Germany. A location must be found that is safe for a million years, as the waste will be radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. The waste is currently stored in 16 above-ground interim storage facilities in various federal states. "We must and can find a final storage site by the middle of the century. We owe that to the people who live in the regions with interim storage facilities," said Lemke.
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Biodiversity | Climate summit | Species conservation
Species conservation conference in Cali
Anti-nature policy with reserve planet
The biodiversity crisis could become more dangerous for humanity than climate change. Viewed in this light, the failure of the World Conservation Summit in Colombia is a particularly big fiasco.
Could there have been a nicer title than "Peace with Nature"? But the UN summit, which was announced so poetically, ended in a fiasco.
Delegates to the World Conservation Conference in Cali, Colombia, delivered a disappointing outcome. They were unable to agree on funding for the goals of restoring the planet's biodiversity and establishing appropriate monitoring mechanisms.
The summit was cancelled without a final declaration, and the key issues were postponed to a conference in two years. The delegates from almost 200 governments acted as if they had a second planet in reserve. But, as we know, it doesn't exist.
Great expectations were placed on the conference. It was to be the first implementation summit after the legendary decision of the previous summit in Montreal in 2022. At that time, the global community had recognized the crisis caused by the rapid loss of biodiversity and the deterioration of ecosystems - and had, figuratively speaking, put the brakes on.
foundation of civilization at risk
It was agreed in Montreal that 2030 percent of the planet's land and ocean areas would be protected by 30, also known as the "30 × 30" target. So far, however, only around 15 percent of the land is more or less well protected, and only seven percent of the oceans. The protection gap is therefore still large, and time is running out until 2030.
The public is even less aware of how much is at stake in preserving biodiversity than in the case of the second mega-topic, climate. It is not just about some species of beetle going extinct, but about the basis for the survival of humanity...
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4 November 2004 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Balakovo, RUS
AtomkraftwerkePlag
Balakovo_(Russia)
On the night of November 3rd to 4th, 2004, an accident occurred due to a turbine malfunction, which caused the Balakovo-2 reactor to be automatically shut down. The reactor is said to have suffered no damage. However, conflicting reports caused great concern among the population: "Hundreds of residents fled that day out of fear of radioactive contamination of the surrounding area. Shop owners closed their shops, and pharmacies were out of iodine products to prevent health damage caused by radioactive radiation." The reactor was restarted a few days later...
Wikipedia de
Nuclear Power Plant_Balakovo
On November 4, 2004, an accident occurred at the nuclear power plant, which caused great concern among the population in the town and the surrounding area, and some even panicked. Eyewitnesses and news agencies reported that numerous frightened residents stocked up on iodine-based radiation antidotes in pharmacies. Universities in Samara, 300 kilometers to the northeast, were closed. Shops in the city advised their employees to stay at home. The environmental organization Greenpeace in Russia feared a leak. The incident brought back memories of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1986 in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union).
Ultimately, according to the operator Energoatom, the incident at the power plant was only a minor malfunction. There were no increased radioactive emissions and a danger could be ruled out, the Russian nuclear agency said...
SPIEGEL report on hidden nuclear power plant incidents around the world
»A cold shiver runs down my spine«
Humanity has slipped past the catastrophe several times by a hair's breadth. This is revealed by 48 accident reports that were kept secret by the Vienna International Atomic Energy Agency: breakdowns, often of the most bizarre, profane kind from the United States and Argentina to Bulgaria and Pakistan ...
3. November
Nuclear waste | Offices | Interim storage
Legacy of Nuclear Power: Report reveals disturbing details of nuclear waste storage
A new report shows worrying conditions in nuclear waste storage. The authors believe the state has a responsibility.
When it comes to nuclear waste, the debate here is mainly about Castor and Co., i.e. the containers with highly radioactive waste that originally comes from nuclear power plants. However, there is much more radioactive material from nuclear power use, medicine and research that needs to be disposed of.
First overview of nuclear waste in Germany: Previously unrecorded deficiencies are a reason
The report "Nuclear Waste - An Inventory for the Federal Republic of Germany" claims to provide, for the first time, a complete overview of nuclear waste storage in Germany. It documents where nuclear waste was and is produced, where it is stored, where it was transported and what safety problems the authors believe exist.
The report is 468 pages long and was published by the environmental association BUND, the organization "ausgestrahlt" and the private Munich Environmental Institute, among others. According to the organizations, the reason for the report was that the federal government does not have an overall overview of radioactive waste and the actual deficiencies, complications or plans at the sites are not recorded. So far, there is only an official waste list that can be used to roughly estimate which quantities are located where.
Nuclear waste report sees sites with significant safety deficits
The report lists over 216 nuclear facilities at 71 locations nationwide, namely 84 currently in operation, 56 decommissioned and 76 already completely removed. Many of these sites have significant safety deficits after decades of use, it says.
According to the report, there are over 50 sites for low and medium-level radioactive waste, called interim storage facilities, buffer storage facilities, preparation halls or state collection points. There are major problems and deficiencies here in particular, as well as in the planned or failed "final storage projects" at Schacht Konrad, Asse or Morsleben. The situation is confusing and in some cases downright chaotic, said the main author of the report, political scientist Ursula Schönberger.
[...] Schönberger criticized that the federal government's recently submitted draft for the "National Waste Management Program" unfortunately did not specifically name the problems. "Not a word about rusting barrels, not a word about the considerable problems with the decommissioning of the Morsleben repository and the evacuation of the Asse II repository. Not a single word about the release of radioactive waste into the normal economic cycle." The report takes on a task that the state and industry have so far neglected.
The report is available by email to info@atommuellreport.de can be ordered, contribution towards expenses 30 Euro.
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty | Weapons shipments | Financial Aid
The illegal US arms deliveries to Israel
There was great excitement – especially in US government offices – when top-secret documents first appeared on Telegram; CNN, Axios and the British newspaper “The Times” reported extensively on these October 16 papers written by the US Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.
It was about the IDF's attack plans on Iran. These were initially postponed and then carried out in a modified form on October 26. Congressional Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed the leak and expressed his outrage. The leak gave rise to "serious allegations," the Republican told CNN. An investigation had been launched and those responsible would be held accountable. That was an extraordinarily violent reaction - and the question arises: what is behind all this excitement - because no specific targets of the attack were even mentioned.
Israel's atomic bomb
The bone of contention is probably that the official government documents mention that Israel will not use nuclear weapons in the coming attack (“No sign of Israel intending to use nuclear weapons”). Through this formulation in the leaked documents, the US government admits that it knows about the existence of the Israeli nuclear bombs, that is, that it is aware of the government in Jerusalem's disregard for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Now, this is not really a big secret (Iran threatened Israel with retaliation in 2021 with a strike against the Dimona nuclear weapons facility if it attacked). Not even the Israeli government explicitly denies this. One minister even toyed with the idea of using the nuclear arsenal in the Gaza Strip. Every newspaper reader knows about the existence of these nuclear bombs in Netanyahu's hands. The only problem is: current US law prohibits support for countries that violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - regardless of whether they have signed it.
191 "parties" have signed the NPT, 93 of which have ratified it. Only four states have refused to do so to this day: India, Pakistan, South Sudan and Israel. North Korea withdrew from the treaty in 2003 and Ukraine is threatening to rearm nuclear weapons, but has not left the NPT.
US law prohibits arms deliveries and even financial aid to states that violate the NPT. The fact is that bombs made in the USA are also being used in the attack on Gaza and Lebanon...
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Propaganda | Disinformation | Sales | E-car
crisis at VW
Germany has an anti-electric car problem
Anyone who takes an electric car to a German workshop, for example to change a tire, may have absurd experiences. And these reflect a huge problem that VW and other manufacturers have.
When our twelve-year-old combustion engine stopped working some time ago, we switched to an electric car. With a family of five, that's not easy, but we found a suitable one that isn't an SUV monster, from a German manufacturer. We love it, even if we use it quite rarely (with three children who play team sports, a car is sometimes very useful). At home, our solar roof charges the battery for free. The car drives fantastically, makes no noise and can easily do 450 kilometers on one charge, even on the highway. With the fast charger, it's back up to 80 percent in no time.
The car is very good, but still quite expensive, which is why it is leased. We have this in common with many other Germans who are currently not buying a new electric car: we expect that in a few years there will be even better and significantly cheaper ones. That is completely rational at the moment, but is consistently ignored in the hysterical "The market is collapsing!!!" debate.
[...] Within five years, global sales of electric cars have increased sixfold. In 2023, the market grew by 35 percent compared to the previous year - although the International Energy Agency also counts 30 percent of this as plug-in hybrids. 10 million purely battery-electric vehicles were sold worldwide in 2023 and growth continues rapidly, with huge growth rates. By comparison: Germany, a car country, has so far exported around three million cars per year - in total.
The market for cars with combustion engines has been shrinking since 2017. German car manufacturers have ignored this for too long, and now their exports are falling away. This is a significant part of VW's problem (the Greens are not to blame, even if Markus Söder keeps claiming otherwise).
[...] Many electric car drivers have also experienced aggression on the road - just because of the drive technology. Tires are punctured, charging stations are sabotaged, and the victim protection organization HateAid has recorded a "nationwide trend" of online bullying against electric vehicle drivers.
Germany has a national anti-electric car problem. It consists of propaganda, disinformation, aggressive nostalgia and open hatred - and a lot of voluntary, freelance multipliers for it. And that is now VW's problem too.
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Volkswagen | Job cuts | Workers out Robots in
CEO Oliver Blume wants to cut costs
The new VW products are well received, says CEO Blume. But the costs in Germany are far too high. The path to savings can be "flexibly designed".
Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume sees no alternative to a restructuring and savings program for the VW brand. The mistakes that caused VW's economic problems were made in the past, Blume told Bild am Sonntag. Weak demand in Europe and significantly lower earnings from China have revealed decades-long structural problems. This is now being addressed consistently.
"Our costs in Germany have to come down massively," said the CEO. VW is simply too expensive at home: "Our labor costs here, for example, are often more than twice as high as the average for our European locations." There is also a need for action in development and sales costs and in other areas.
Basically, however, VW is doing well, said Blume, with group sales currently slightly above the previous year. "Our new products are very well received, as evidenced by the increase in orders in the third quarter." However, profits have fallen by more than 20 percent, particularly because of the high costs.
That is why Blume wants to tackle the restructuring now. "The goal for cost and capacity adjustment has been set," said the CEO. Only the path to achieving it can be "flexibly designed." The group has set aside around 900 million euros for the measures as provisions in the annual report.
[...] In addition to the core brand VW, the Volkswagen Group also includes brands such as Škoda and Seat Cupra, which produce mainly abroad at lower costs and are therefore not under as much pressure as VW.
VW combustion engines are selling increasingly poorly, especially in the important Chinese market. In Europe, demand for electric cars has fallen short of expectations.
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Infrastructure | Minister of transport | Transport transition | Economic performance
Knie's week
Forecast as desired, Detroit in Germany and the magical Wissing
Calendar week 44: The transport minister is blocking all measures to reduce CO2 emissions, but is including them as effective climate protection in his forecast for 2040, criticizes Andreas Knie, mobility researcher and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. He fears that the car crisis could turn Wolfsburg into the new Detroit.
Klimareporter°: Mr Knie, the "Traffic Forecast 2040" presented by the Federal Minister of Transport predicts that the car will still be the most important means of transport in 16 years. Is a change in drive systems sufficient to achieve the climate targets in the transport sector?
Andreas Knie: The forecasting team at the Ministry of Transport certainly put a lot of effort into it, but the result they came up with is a desired outcome for the current budget negotiations, but unfortunately it does not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
According to the official forecast, freight transport will grow strongly on the road and even more so on the rail. Aviation can also look forward to significant growth in domestic and international traffic. Only inland shipping is stagnating and even declining.
The truth, however, is that we are optimistic that economic performance will stagnate until 2040. Due to demographic change, digitalization and shifts in people's value preferences, transport performance in freight and passenger transport will even decline significantly.
That would be a chance to finally get our infrastructure on the right track, to adapt it to meet needs and thus make it more resilient. But the ministry cannot think that far ahead. It is geared towards the needs of the construction industry and only knows one direction from within its own department: growth. Always and under all circumstances.
[...]
The crisis at Volkswagen is getting worse. The automobile group is planning to close at least three plants in Germany. VW's profits fell by 64 percent in the third quarter and were thus even lower than feared. Is there still hope for the German car industry?
Cabaret has long been the one to enlighten us. The ZDF's "Heute Show" on November 1st summed up the situation as follows: Germany's prosperity over the years has been based on the fact that the Americans protected us for free, the Russians supplied us with energy for cheap, and the Chinese bought everything we delivered to them in the form of overpriced goods.
This is especially true for VW. The company has sold around 60 percent of its vehicles in China in recent years. The situation is not much different for other car manufacturers.
Since China has been asking for around 15 years to adapt its products to Chinese needs, but German manufacturers refuse to do so and – quite the opposite – keep telling the Chinese that only we, the Germans, know what to do with cars, we will lose all our reputation and business in China.
This means: Wolfsburg will become the new Detroit and the region around Stuttgart will become the new Ruhr area...
Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Current news+
Climate change | Natural disaster | Double standards | Species conservation
No more business as usual
flood disaster in Spain
The floods in Spain show that climate change has long been a reality and its effects are devastating. It is clear that many people are defenseless against the threat of extreme weather phenomena due to the ongoing warming of the Mediterranean. Scientists from the IPCC have also been warning for years about the loss of ecosystems and species, rising sea levels and emerging diseases. Nevertheless, international meetings such as the upcoming World Climate Conference in Azerbaijan and the current COP 25 species protection conference are in danger of once again degenerating into a symbolic farce.
After floods, forest fires and other natural disasters, everything is often done around the world to restore so-called normality as quickly as possible. In the global north in particular, people overlook the fact that capitalist consumer society itself is a central part of the problem and by no means part of the solution. Climate change is ensuring that flood disasters such as those currently occurring in Spain, Italy and France are becoming more frequent, more intense and more unpredictable.
Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said the decisive thing on Monday at the COP 25 in Cali:
Capitalism destroys the climate, and a destroyed climate ultimately endangers not only capitalism but all of humanity. Petro called for a world revolution: the time had come for the peoples of the world, and especially in the global south, to work for a radical system transformation and a move away from profit maximization at any price before the progressive loss of biodiversity threatens the survival of humanity. It was about introducing new (and perhaps old) modes of production that help preserve not only the environment but also human civilization. Petro hit a nerve when he addressed the debt burden of the global south, which must be forgiven. The exploitation of the southern hemisphere must end - out of solidarity, but also out of the well-understood self-interest of the global north.
"It's worse than the apocalypse," said Petro in Cali. He rightly criticizes Western double standards: while billions are spent on armaments and military operations such as in Gaza or the war in Ukraine, which could escalate to nuclear war at any time, the funds promised for the global South and against climate change remain insufficient. This hypocrisy is downright grotesque, because entire societies are threatened with extinction. Despite the urgency of preventing this, "we" are being betrayed not only by "social democrats" but also by parts of the left.
The Spanish philosopher and activist Raúl Sánchez Cedillo speaks of a global war regime, and it affects everyone.
Current news+ | Background knowledge | Top |
Background knowledge
The map of the nuclear world
When Horror clowns are in power, life has no good future ...
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The “Internal Search”
Climate change | Natural disaster | Double standards | Species conservation
June 6, 2024 - First comes the double standards, then the eating
December 10, 2023 - "You cannot demand from us a change that you yourself undermine"
December 9, 2023 - "Disgusting!" - OPEC letter against turning away from fossil fuels causes outrage
December 2, 2023 - Scholz calls for global phase-out of coal, oil and gas
November 11, 2023 - Global Warming - Super Hot Record Year
June 7, 2023 - Climate and species protection: Why financial competition is devastating
February 6, 2023 - Climate change has devastating effects on water supplies
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Wikipedia
Climate change
Climate change, also climate change, climate change or climate change, is a worldwide change in the climate on earth or earth-like planets or moons that have an atmosphere. The cooling or warming associated with climate change can take place over different lengths of time. An important distinction is made between those weather patterns that take place within the framework of a climatic condition or a climatic zone, and climate change itself, which increases or decreases the probability of certain weather conditions occurring.
The current global warming, which is mainly caused by humans (anthropogenic), is an example of a very rapid but not yet complete climate change...
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is a naturally occurring change in the earth's surface or atmosphere that has devastating effects on living beings, especially humans and their way of life.
Even if humans are not the cause of natural disasters, they can indirectly contribute to the effects of natural disasters or exacerbate them, for example through global warming, types of land use that promote disasters or settlement in particularly vulnerable areas such as low-lying coastal areas. Measures to prevent natural disasters are taken as part of disaster protection...
Double standards
Double standards are a system of norms that ethically evaluate the same behavior differently depending on which group of people the person carrying out the behavior or the people affected belong to, or depending on whether they are in a public or private situation within or outside a community, without there being any objective reason for doing so. The double standards can be explicitly reflected in a moral code that reflects a different order of values, or implicitly in the moral sensibilities, behavior and value judgments of individuals. The decisive feature is that "double standards" are applied.
Double standards can be spoken of whenever different evaluation criteria are used, although the facts underlying the evaluation are (structurally) similar. The term therefore goes beyond the different evaluation of one's own behavior and the behavior of others, or of the behavior that a person demands from others and the behavior that they themselves show (hypocrisy). If there is a contradiction between the morality that is actually followed and the morality that is represented to the outside world, bigotry is more likely to be spoken of instead...
Species conservation
Species protection (also species conservation) involves the protection and care of certain wild species by humans, either on the basis of ethical or aesthetic principles or on the basis of ecologically sound findings. This distinguishes species protection from animal protection, where humans want to protect individual animals for their own sake. In contrast, species protection is concerned with wild populations of the target species it is intended to protect. If this population is viable, the death and loss of individuals is acceptable. In principle, species protection refers exclusively to wild animal or plant species. Similar efforts are also being made in agriculture for rare breeds of livestock or old varieties of fruit, vegetables and grain. The overarching goal is to protect biological diversity (biodiversity).
Red lists of endangered species have been compiled since 1966 in an attempt to quantify the degree to which species are threatened. Species conservation programs usually aim to protect a single endangered or threatened species.
Species protection is part of nature conservation. In addition to protecting populations of individual species, this also deals with the protection of entire habitats (biotopes, ecotopes). This is also referred to as biotope protection (habitat protection). (Direct) species protection and biotope protection are both intended to prevent or slow down the extinction of species...
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Federal Agency for Civic Education
Natural disaster
explanation of Terms
Natural disasters are very violent and unusual natural events that result in many deaths, injuries and homelessness. They often cause great damage to nature and to buildings, roads, railways and other structures. After such a disaster, people in the affected areas are often no longer able to help themselves. They are then dependent on international aid.
Various natural disasters
There are very different types of natural disasters: floods, high water, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. But severe storms, heavy rain, snow, hail and avalanches as well as droughts, bush and steppe fires can also have catastrophic consequences. Seaquakes can also pose a very great danger. They can lead to huge waves, the so-called tsunamis (the word comes from Japanese and means "big wave"). In 2011, a tsunami and an earthquake led to a nuclear disaster at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima (Japan). Almost 16.000 people lost their lives and around half a million people were left homeless. Some areas in Japan are still uninhabitable today...
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