Newsletter VII 2023

February 12 to 18

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Nuclear Power Accidents

This PDF file contains a list of accidents and releases of radioactivity. Some of this information was only made public under the most difficult of circumstances. As new information emerges, this list will be expanded and updated...

Excerpt for this month:

5. February 1958 (Broken Arrow) Tybee Island, USA

6. February 1974 (INES 5) NPP Sosnovy Bor, USSR

13. February 1950 (Broken Arrow) Princess Royal Island, CAN

16. February 2011 (INES 2) NPP Tricastin, FRA

22. February 1977 (INES 4) NPP Jaslovke Bohunice, SVK

February 2010 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Vermont Yankee, USA

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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nukleare-welt@reaktorpleite.de

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18. February

growth | green energy | Shrink

Green energy too expensive:

Green shrinking is trending

A new study proves that "green growth" is an illusion. Because the eco-energy that drives our technology is simply too expensive.

Climate protection seems easy: You just have to rely on green energy. Unfortunately, mobilizing enough green energy is not trivial. Energy experts estimate that Germany would need around 2.000 terawatt hours (TWh) of green electricity if “green growth” is to be possible. That would be around 4 times as much electricity as Germany uses today.

The Federal Republic cannot produce all of these quantities. Even if as many solar panels and wind turbines as possible were installed, only 1.200 domestic terawatt hours would come out. The remaining 800 TWh would have to be imported ...

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Wagenknecht | Manifesto for Peace | negotiation peace

Comment: "Manifesto for Peace" is neither naive nor immoral

In their "Manifesto for Peace," Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer warn of an escalation in the Ukraine war due to arms deliveries from the West - instead, the war must end at the negotiating table. More than 500.000 people have already signed, but the authors have also been heavily criticized.

The writer Heinrich Böll was a violent, peaceful fighter against military violence. But he was no dreamer. He knew you can't pray a dictator away. But it also knew that military force would never bring peace. Tanks, howitzers, grenades and rockets can avert deadly threats, they can stop crime and put an end to tyranny. But they cannot bring peace...

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United States | Ukraine war causes | NATO eastward expansion

Why the US itself didn't accept Ukraine as a red line

Ultimately, they wanted to admit Georgia and Ukraine to NATO. The warnings from liberals, hardliners and diplomats grew louder and louder. But Washington has turned a blind eye to them to this day. (part 2, end)

Here it goes to the first part of the article by Branko Marcetic on NATO's eastward enlargement and the warnings about it as expressed in diplomatic cables.

The analysts repeated what US officials said cables had repeatedly heard from Russian officials themselves, whether they be diplomats, members of parliament or senior Russian officials up to and including the president, which is captured in at least three dozen of the cables.

NATO expansion is "worrying," said a Duma member, while Russian generals "are suspicious of NATO and US intentions," it said. Russian Ambassador to NATO from 2008 to 2011, Dmitry Rogozin, stressed in a February 2008 cable that offering a NATO membership application to Ukraine or Georgia would "negatively affect NATO's relations with Russia" and the "tensions along the NATO-Russia borders".

From liberals to hardliners

Russia's then-Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin, in another March 2008 telegram, underscored "the depth of Russian resistance" to the two countries' membership and stressed that the "political elite firmly believed" that "the accession of Ukraine and Georgia poses a direct security threat to Russia"...

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17. February

Storykillers | Forbidden Stories | Cambridge Analytica

Main emphasis:

Storykillers

Starting with the murder of journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh in Bangalore in 2017, the Storykillers project investigates the private industry behind the disinformation. Lankesh had dealt with fake news and disinformation in her work before she was shot dead on her doorstep, probably because of her publications. More than 100 reporters from 30 media organizations were involved in the international research, which is coordinated by Forbidden Stories. In Germany, in addition to ZEIT, Spiegel and ZDF were also part of the research.

Eliminalia:

The tracers

A Spanish company is wiping the pasts of the rich, criminals and crypto scammers off the web. A data leak shows how she does it...

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Japan | Nuclear Regulatory Authority NRA | lifetime extension

Authority on course for government

Critics question the independence of Japan's nuclear regulatory agency

A few days ago, the Japanese nuclear regulatory authority (NRA) decided on a new regulatory system and thus approved an extension of the service life of nuclear reactors to more than 60 years.

[...]

When asked about the rushed decision-making process, Shinsuke Yamanaka, the body's chairman, said at a news conference: "The deadline for the committee's decision, set by the timeframe for submitting bills to Parliament, was a predetermined deadline and could not be changed.”

This means that the NRA has simply accepted the Department of Business, Trade and Industry's timetable, thereby ignoring a broad debate on the safety issue. This practically eliminates the separation of funding and regulation ...

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France | EDF NPP | losses increase

France's ailing nuclear power plants

Energy group EDF makes a loss of almost 18 billion euros

The standstill of numerous nuclear power plants in France has brought operator EDF a record loss. In the past year, many reactors had to be taken off the grid due to material defects and delayed repairs.

The French energy group EDF posted the highest loss in its company history last year. The minus amounted to 17,9 billion euros, and the debt level had risen to 64,5 billion euros, EDF said. Reason are massive problems with the nuclear power plants. "The result for 2022 is severely affected by the decline in electricity production," said EDF boss Luc Rémont ...

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Ukraine war | pacifism | Wagenknecht | transverse front

Wagenknecht and Schwarzer: You don't march with rights

Lafontaine and Wagenknecht mobilize the transverse front with the AfD. Your call has nothing to do with honest pacifism

Wars are always a disaster. Who is not first for peace, has no heart. Every person who dies in the Ukraine war is one too many. This applies to the Ukrainians suffering from the Russian onslaught, as well as to the Russian soldiers sent to the front lines as cannon fodder by Russian President Vladimir Putin. This war also always harbors the danger of escalation beyond the borders of Ukraine. In the end, it will ultimately have to come down to diplomacy and negotiations. A Volodymyr Selenskij probably knows that even better than many a German bellicose. Nevertheless, the "Manifesto for Peace" by Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer should be rejected - if only because of Oskar Lafontaine's explicit invitation to the far right. There is nothing to discuss there. Their appeal has nothing to do with honest pacifism...

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Renewables | solar park | community revenue

How a solar park finances the local day care center

The federal government's climate protection goals envisage at least tripling the pace of the expansion of renewable energies by 2030. This will hardly be possible without so-called open-space photovoltaics. For this reason, large solar parks are currently being built on many sections of the Autobahn. An example from the north.

[...]

With the income from the trade tax, the municipality wants to continue to finance the many offers in the village - from the day care center to the branch of the elementary school. "So far, we have not been a community that has a very large trade tax payer in its ranks. We are not a community that has a lavish bed of roses in terms of financial strength," says the mayor. The community was looking for an investor to build the solar park, and a company from Schleswig-Holstein finally built the park. "We assume that we can achieve between 30.000 and 50.000 euros in trade tax from the solar park that has now been created," says Bajorat ...

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Turkey | Akkuyu | safety construction regulations

Earthquake in Turkey: Debate about nuclear power plant construction rekindled

Russia is building a nuclear power plant in Turkey, the first in that country. It is formed, of all places, near the fault line associated with the most recent devastating earthquake. Activists doubt security.

The recent devastating earthquake in parts of Turkey and Syria has reignited a long-standing debate locally and in neighboring Cyprus over a large nuclear power plant being built on Turkey's southern Mediterranean coast. The Akkuyu location where it is forming is approximately 338 kilometers west of the epicenter of the 7,8 magnitude quake on February 6, and the structure is designed to withstand massive earth movements. The past quake did not cause any damage to the structure, the site in question did not experience powerful earthquakes ...

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France | Hungary | Rosatom sanctions

EU Commission abandons plans for sanctions against Russian nuclear sector

The Russian state-owned company Rosatom will probably not be included in the new sanctions package. Hungary and France opposed the plans. These are the reasons.

The countries of the European Union are working on a new package of sanctions against Russia. One result is apparently already certain: no action will be taken against the Russian nuclear sector and its representatives. The European Commission has abandoned such plans, Politico reported on Thursday ...

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United States | Ukraine war causes | NATO eastward expansion

The US knew they were crossing Russia's red lines on NATO expansion

Diplomatic cables show how Washington accepted the danger of war in the course of eastward expansion. Warnings came from all sides. What is amazing is how precisely what finally happened was prophesied. (Part 1)

For nearly a year, the war in Ukraine has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and brought the world to the brink of what President Joe Biden called "Armageddon." Aside from the literal battlefield, a similarly fierce intellectual battle over the causes of the war has developed.

Commentators have hastened to dismiss the long-criticized policy of NATO expansion as irrelevant to the outbreak of war or as a mere fig leaf used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to cover up what former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a recent Washington Post op-ed, called "his messianic mission" to "restore the Russian empire"...

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16. February

Tampering | Forbidden Stories | Storykillers | Cambridge Analytica

»Storykillers« research

Swiss federal prosecutor investigated against cyber mercenary boss "Jorge"

A group of Israeli ex-agents who appear to be hacking politicians is making headlines around the world. A case was already underway in Switzerland against the head of the group – he had sold fake data to a spy.

The head of the cyber mercenary group Team Jorge has already been investigated in Switzerland on suspicion of industrial espionage. An international investigation, in which SPIEGEL, ZDF and the Swiss Tamedia Group were also involved, revealed this week that the Israeli Tal Hanan, aka "Jorge", and his previously secret company were offering, among other things, election manipulation as a service. Traces led to Kenya, Nigeria and the Balkans.

[...]

Five years later, he boasted to undercover journalists posing as potential clients that his team could break into email and messenger accounts, obtain private banking information, and rig elections. His people are active all over the world, he has already influenced 27 elections in the interests of his customers. When asked, he denied any wrongdoing.

As recently as Wednesday, a prominent Israeli lawyer reported Tal Hanan and his colleagues and asked Israel's authorities to bring charges. The accusation: fraud, forgery and election manipulation.

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Nuclear waste | Grafenrheinfeld | Würgassen

Grafenrheinfeld: Nuclear waste from Würgassen arrived

A transport with low-level radioactive waste has arrived at the Grafenrheinfeld interim storage facility in Lower Franconia. The containers delivered by truck as dangerous goods transport come from the former Würgassen nuclear power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Four containers with low-level radioactive waste from the former Würgassen nuclear power plant in North Rhine-Westphalia have arrived at the Grafenrheinfeld nuclear waste interim storage facility. This was reported by the operator of the former Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant, PreussenElektra. The nuclear waste transport had previously been criticized by opponents of nuclear power and local politicians ...

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lobby network | wind power opponents | Disinformation

The dubious lobby network behind anti-wind turbine citizens' initiatives

The largest onshore wind farm in Germany is to be built in the district of Altötting. The votes of the communities are still pending. However, the citizens' initiative "Gegenwind Altötting" was formed to prevent the wind turbine park. We analyzed your flyer: Wind power myths are being spread and dubious organizations are being advertised. Our research on the backers behind the flyer leads to the smut scene.

[...]

However, it is the organized climate denial scene and the actors behind it from the oil, coal and nuclear industries that benefit the most. For years, they have been pushing conspiracy ideologies and disinformation in a targeted manner in order to delegitimize scientific findings on climate change and to instrumentalize unsuspecting people for their profit maximization ...

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South Africa | Emergency | Floods

South Africa after the Flood: Times of Crisis in the Cape

South Africa's government has repeatedly declared a state of emergency. Recently because of the electricity crisis, now because of the flooding. Both affect agriculture and cause food prices to rise.

In South Africa, one disaster situation follows another. After President Cyril Ramaphosa issued emergency measures last week due to the devastating electricity crisis, he was now forced to declare a state of emergency due to flooding after heavy rains, especially in the east of the country. In seven of the nine South African provinces, countless houses were destroyed, cars washed away and sewage treatment plants flooded, the president's office said. In addition, dams overflowed and bridges were destroyed. So far there is talk of twelve dead, several people are missing. Meteorologists expect more rain ...

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Climate change | drought | South America

Extreme weather in Argentina and Uruguay:

Climate or La Niña?

Argentina and Uruguay are suffering from their worst drought in decades. Researchers have now investigated whether climate change is to blame.

BUENOS AIRES taz | Climate change is not the main reason for the reduced rainfall, which led to droughts in large parts of Argentina and Uruguay at the end of last year. This is the conclusion of a study by the research network World Weather Attribution, which was presented on Thursday.

However, climate change has increased temperatures in the region, likely reducing water availability and exacerbating the effects of the drought, the group of 18 researchers, including scientists from Argentina, Colombia, France and the Netherlands, concluded , UK and USA.

They blame the La Niña weather phenomenon, which brings only little rainfall in South America from December to March, as the driving factor. La Niña usually follows as a countermovement to the climate phenomenon El Niño and occurs about every four years ...

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France | Photovoltaics | Solar roof parking lot

Photovoltaics: Compulsory in French parking lots in the future

France has made photovoltaics compulsory for large car parks, and some German states already have them. What does the compulsion bring?

In future, at least half of parking lots with more than 80 parking spaces in France will have to be covered with photovoltaic modules. A similar photovoltaic obligation already exists in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate (see table). However, it applies to new buildings. In France, it also applies to existing car parks. Systems with up to 400 parking spaces have five years to retrofit, larger three years.

According to the French government, the French PV parks could generate around 9 to 11 gigawatts of power, about as much as ten nuclear power plants - and at a fraction of the price. So has France found a power supply silver bullet?

At first glance, there is a lot to be said for parking lots as PV locations: They are plentiful, easily accessible, no additional areas need to be sealed...

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16. February 2011 (INES 2) NPP Tricastin, FRA

The failure of the emergency diesel generator was discovered during one of the regular tests.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

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AtomkraftwerkePlag

https://atomkraftwerkeplag.fandom.com/de/wiki/Tricastin_(Frankreich)

Tricastin (France)

Old reactors on the Rhône from 1980/81

The Tricastin site has made headlines time and time again for a long list of mishaps and incidents, most notably in 2008.

The facility is located in the southern French department of Drôme on the Canal de Donzère-Mondragon next to the Rhône, south of Montélimar and north of Orange and Avignon. In Tricastin, four pressurized water reactors with an output of 955 MW each, which went into operation in 1980 and 1981, generate electricity. The facility is owned and operated by the French company Électricité de France (EDF). Manufacturer was Framatome (today AREVA).

In 2011, the French Institute for Nuclear Safety (IRSN) criticized the operators for not having given enough consideration to the fact that there are dangerous factories in the vicinity of the French nuclear power plants Gravelines, Saint-Alban and Tricastin, in which chemicals are produced, for example.

On February 11, 2015, the French nuclear regulatory authority ASN approved an extension of the operating life for the Tricastin-2 reactor by a further ten years, as did the same on June 9, 2015 for Tricastin-3 ...

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Wikipedia

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Tricastin

On February 16, it was found that in more than half of the emergency power diesel generators in Units 3 and 4, some individual parts that had been replaced two years ago for the purpose of replacement could fail prematurely if the diesel had been running for a little longer ... In the event of failure of the external power grid and the reserve grid (Emergency power failure) the power supply for cooling down the decay heat in the reactor core would not have been secured with Tricastin 3/4, in the worst case it could even have led to a core meltdown in both blocks...

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15. February

gas lobby | lobby control

Is the gas lobby too powerful?:

On average one meeting per day

The NGO Lobbycontrol accuses the federal government of having too close contact with the gas industry. The Ministry of Economy disagrees.

BERLIN taz | The organization Lobbycontrol accuses the federal government of being too close to the climate-damaging natural gas industry. On Wednesday, the lobbyism critics published a Study with appropriate data.

The allegations mainly concern previous federal governments, but also the traffic light coalition. For example, in the period from mid-December 2021 to mid-September 2022, there were more than 260 meetings on natural gas policy between representatives of gas companies and top political personnel, including the Federal Chancellor, the Federal Ministers and their State Secretaries. On average, that works out to about one meeting a day...

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South Africa | Eskom | large power plants

South Africa has declared a national emergency over power blackouts

In South Africa, the government recently declared a national emergency. For many years now, power outages have been increasing in frequency and length.

The South African power company Eskom is no longer able to maintain the power supply. The electricity is switched off for up to 10 hours a day. Eskom has a debt of 21 billion euros.

The main reason for this is that the power company has relied on large central power plants for decades. Especially the plentiful coal in South Africa. In addition, Eskom has wasted billions in the sand because the group counted on nuclear power plants of the high-temperature reactor (HTR) type, i.e. thorium high-temperature reactors (THTR).

During my time as research policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, after the red-green nuclear phase-out in 2000, I was often criticized by researchers - for example from Jülich or by managers from energy companies - that this German nuclear phase-out was wrong. Many countries would have recognized the opportunities and would rely on modern nuclear technology - precisely the thorium high-temperature reactor (THTR) that failed in Hamm-Uentrop in Germany. Including South Africa. Up to a thousand people worked there at times on the high-temperature reactor, which should go into operation in 2009.

The message was always clear: the Germans under red-green are stupid, even the South Africans have recognized the opportunities of modern nuclear energy in contrast to the Greens.

In 2009, Eskom's nuclear plans failed and the South African government miserably.

However, Eskom still has billions in debt from the "nuclear adventure", which has massively reduced the energy supply company's ability to invest in modern power generation to this day...

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renewable | Hydrogen | nuclear power

Renewable hydrogen: Turn red into green

Under certain circumstances, the hydrogen that was produced with the help of nuclear power should also be allowed to be called green. An expansion of renewables would be better.

The EU is notoriously flexible when it comes to the word “green”. Many investments in natural gas and nuclear power can be sold as green, as the EU stipulated last year in its so-called taxonomy for sustainable finance, despite the many greenhouse gas emissions and the large amount of nuclear waste.

Now the EU Commission wants to draw the logical conclusion for hydrogen: Under certain circumstances, it should also be allowed to call it green if it was not produced with the help of renewable energies at all, but on the basis of nuclear power...

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Nuclear power, no thank you! | Brokdorf | Resistance

"Nuclear power, no thank you!" - The victory of staying power

In November 1976 violent clashes broke out at the construction site for the nuclear power plant in Brokdorf. The dispute between opponents and proponents of nuclear power will become one of the dominant issues over the next few decades.

"I think our strength here on site was, politically speaking, that we stayed on the ball all the time. And ultimately we also achieved that no more nuclear power plants were built and that they are now also switched off." Heinrich Voss looks back with satisfaction on his fight against nuclear power, even though he was unable to prevent the construction of the Brokdorf nuclear power plant next to his farm in Schleswig-Holstein. His wife Christine Scheer describes what moved her at the time: "The resistance was not shaped by fear, but simply by this injustice, the way we are treated here." ...

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Battery | Recycling | Lithium

Valuable raw materials

Clean recycling for e-car batteries

A team from RWTH Aachen has further developed the recycling of lithium-ion batteries. More than 90 percent of the valuable battery metals can be recovered with their technology.

What happens to the old batteries from discarded electric cars? Myths and rumors surround this question. Thanks to new methods with which batteries are no longer just shredded or melted down, but also treated wet-chemically, up to 96 percent of the raw materials they contain can now be recovered. The Aachen startup Cylib is now going one step further: At some points in the recycling process, Cylib has replaced toxic alkalis and acids with water. "This makes battery recycling not only more environmentally friendly, but also more cost-effective," says co-founder Lilian Schwich ...

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Japan | lifetime extension

Japan's nuclear regulatory agency approves reactor life extensions

Japan's nuclear regulatory agency has approved life extensions for reactors beyond 60 years. In the vote, only one of the five commissioners was against an extension.

The authority thus follows the procedure decided by the government last week, according to which reactors can be operated for more than 60 years if regular safety inspections are carried out. Extensions are to be granted from the 30th year of operation for a further 10 years.

[...]

Nuclear regulatory agency bows to pressure from Japanese government

Akria Ishiwatari voted against the lifetime extension. The geologist had already prevented approval from the nuclear regulatory authority last week.

Commissioner Tomoyuki Suigyama told Japanese media that he felt the discussion was rushed due to government pressure and that the regulator should have acted more independently...

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Disinformation | Storykillers | Forbidden Stories | Cambridge Analytica

The Dark Deal with the Truth

Fake news and smear campaigns have become a lucrative business. A covert investigation leads to a group that claims to have manipulated elections worldwide.

The first rule is: no American politics. The second rule: nothing against Putin. The third rule: certainly nothing in Israel.

The men who made these laws are received on the third floor of an office building in Modi'in, a medium-sized city halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It's the end of December, a normal sales pitch, they think. In the conference room there is a large screen on which they want to show their supposed customers what they can do: in the next two hours they will hack into someone else's e-mail and telegram accounts, they will show how they can create virtual avatars in a few minutes who spread fake news on the internet. They will explain how they influence elections and change politics. What they don't know: They are being filmed with hidden cameras...

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politics media | Ukraine war | MIC

How spin and lies are fueling a bloody war of attrition in Ukraine

Politicians and the media twist the truth. At the same time, military leaders like the German General Erich Vad, who spoke of a second Verdun, sounded the alarm. It's time to speak up with the citizens.

In a recent column, military analyst William Astore wrote:

[Congressman] George Santos (Republican congressman who lied about his biography) is a symptom of a much greater malady: a lack of honor, a lack of shame in America. Honor, truth, integrity just don't seem to matter in America today, not much at least... But how can you speak of democracy when there is no truth?

Astore compared America's political and military elites to disgraced Congressman Santos.

US military leaders came before Congress to testify that they were winning the Iraq war. They told Congress that the war in Afghanistan was being won. They spoke of "progress," of turning points, of successfully trained Iraqi and Afghan forces ready to take over when US troops withdraw. As the course of the war revealed, it was all just gossip. All lies.

Now America is at war again, in Ukraine, and the game goes on. This war involves Russia, Ukraine, the United States and their NATO allies. None of the parties involved in this conflict has honestly explained to their own people what they are fighting for, what they really hope to achieve and how they intend to achieve it.

All sides claim to be fighting for noble causes and insist that it is the other side that refuses to negotiate a peaceful solution. They all manipulate and lie, and compliant media (on all sides) trumpet their lies...

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14. February

traffic policy | Freeway | CO2

Rail freight transport expands its environmental advantage

Pro-Rail Alliance and BUND call on the federal government to quickly create more space for freight trains. Because freight trains emit 7,4 times less CO2 than trucks. This is shown by current figures from the Federal Environment Agency, which the Pro-Rail Alliance has evaluated.

Over the past ten years, rail freight transport has continuously increased its CO2 lead over road freight transport.

"Five times more climate-friendly ten years ago, today seven times more climate-friendly - the figures show once again that the federal government should rely much more on rail freight transport in order to achieve the climate goals in the transport sector," says Dirk Flege, Managing Director of the Pro-Rail Alliance. "In particular, the discussion within the federal government about new motorways for future freight transport should be ended quickly against this background and instead the rail capacities should be expanded quickly." ...

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Press freedom | Forbidden Stories | Gauri Lankesh

Project Story Killers:

Gauri Lankesh and the many-headed hydra

Indian journalist Gauri Lankesh fought against fake news until she was assassinated in 2017. The Storykillers research project is now continuing its work.

[...]

The journalist consortium Forbidden Stories, which continues the work of threatened, imprisoned or murdered journalists, has continued Lankesh's unfinished work. Based on their conviction that disinformation is now being used industrially and as a weapon, around 100 journalists from 30 media outlets came together in Forbidden Stories to research the global market for disinformation as part of the Storykillers project. From India to South America to the heart of Europe, those involved have gradually exposed a growing and unregulated market ranging from small-scale fake news distributors to multinational mercenary squads selling disinformation campaigns designed to undermine democracies.

Today, five years after Lankesh's murder, Forbidden Stories was able to access investigative files on her case, speak to local police and attorneys, and follow a previously unidentified lead: that of a 2012 viral YouTube video made by Lankesh about the social media and then got to those who would later use it as justification for their alleged assassination...

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United States | environmental catastrophe | train wreck

Derailed train in Ohio releases highly toxic substances

In the US, there are concerns about health consequences. Photos of dead fish and frogs have been circulating on social media for days

For more than ten days, a potential environmental disaster has occupied several towns in the border area between the two US states of Ohio and Pennsylvania: After a train loaded with chemicals, some of which were dangerous, derailed, they were burned off in a controlled manner to prevent them from getting into the groundwater and subsequently into the nearby Ohio River. But the deliberately careful handling of the accident by the authorities raises questions and does not exactly help to increase trust in the institutions among the local population ...

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battery research | Lithium battery

Lithium-air battery triples the energy density of conventional lithium batteries

Researchers find a solution to previous obstacles, and a first prototype delivers promising results

Lithium-ion batteries have enabled the rise of mobile electronics and are also an important driver for the transport turnaround towards electric drives. But they also have limits. Since common electrode material such as graphite takes up a lot of space, the energy density is limited. This also means that batteries with a usable total capacity take up a lot of space in the construction of vehicles and also add a lot to the weight. Although significant improvements have been made here over the decades, further increases are proving to be a difficult challenge.

An idea for improvement is the use of a lithium-air electrode. In principle, this proved to be a suitable concept for energy storage, but it has always been associated with a number of problems ...

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EU Parliament | Combustion engines

The EU Parliament finally approves the end of combustion engines from 2035

From 2035, cars with diesel and petrol engines will no longer be allowed to be newly registered in the EU. The EU Parliament has now formally approved this decision.

The EU Parliament has given its final approval for phasing out internal combustion engines for new cars in 2035. A majority of MEPs voted in favor of no new cars with diesel or petrol engines being allowed to be registered from January 1, 2035. The member states had already decided to end combustion engines in November. There is grandfathering for cars with combustion engines that have already been registered by then...

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Hydrogen | nuclear power

New EU definition of hydrogen:

"Green" also with nuclear power

The EU Commission proposes that hydrogen produced with nuclear power be classified as “green”. This is reminiscent of the dispute over taxonomy.

BRUSSELS afp | The EU Commission wants to make it possible to classify hydrogen produced with nuclear power as “green”. The Brussels authority presented a proposal for a corresponding definition of green hydrogen on Monday. Under certain circumstances, hydrogen produced with nuclear power could therefore be considered sustainable and correspondingly eligible for funding. That could cause a dispute between Germany and France, who are divided on the nuclear issue ...

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Bundesrat | Whistleblower

Federal Council blocked: what bothers the federal states about the whistleblower law

More than a year ago, Germany should have introduced better protection for whistleblowers. Now the Federal Council is blocking the law.

The long overdue implementation of an EU directive to protect whistleblowers is being delayed further. In its session on February 10, 2023, the Bundesrat refused to approve a corresponding law of the Bundestag. This was justified, among other things, with too much effort for the economy. The law leads "in economically difficult times to high costs and additional bureaucracy, especially for small and medium-sized companies," said the Bavarian Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU).

[...]

After the rejection of the draft law, the mediation committee between the Bundestag and Bundesrat will probably have to negotiate a compromise that can be supported by both legislative bodies. Should the adoption be further delayed, Germany could face EU infringement proceedings and possible penalties.

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CO2 | Warming | geoengineering

Weathering as the Earth's thermostat

Model quantifies temperature dependence of CO2 binding in rock

Geochemical climate protection: Chemical weathering binds CO2 in the rock and has formed an important climate buffer on earth for millions of years. For the first time, researchers have now comprehensively quantified how weathering reacts to rising temperatures and which factors determine its global intensity. Accordingly, the CO2 absorption of weathering increases by an average of 3,2 percent for each degree. In much of the Earth's surface, however, this feedback is blocked by a lack of water and exposed rock, the team reports in Science.

Without weathering, Earth would be a greenhouse planet. Because over the course of billions of years, volcanoes have released enough carbon dioxide to triple the level of CO2 in the atmosphere compared to today's levels. This prevented them chemical weathering of basaltic and granitic rocks. During this chemical process, CO2 dissolves in rainwater and forms carbonic acid. This loosens silicate minerals from the rock and reacts with them, binding CO2 to form carbonates. These weathering products reach the sea via the rivers and are deposited as sediment on the seabed ...

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13. February

Nuclear phase-out | Lingen fuel element factory | Gronau uranium enrichment plant | Garching research reactor

Dear friends,

61 days until the Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II nuclear power plants are shut down - how many days until the Lingen fuel element factory, the Gronau uranium enrichment plant and the Munich-Garching research reactor are shut down?

Even this list shows that the nuclear phase-out in Germany is far from complete - and the nuclear lobby wants to keep the nuclear power plants running anyway. April 15th is an international milestone in the fight to phase out nuclear power, but we in the Emsland/Münsterland region in particular know that we are still a long way from reaching our goal - which is why we will be back on the streets in Lingen on April 15th:

1. The fuel element factory in Lingen is even to be expanded this year - the French nuclear company Framatome wants to get the Kremlin nuclear company Rosatom on board to supply the Eastern European nuclear power plants. We absolutely want to prevent that, because otherwise Lingen will become an internationally important hub for the supply of dilapidated Soviet-Russian nuclear power plants for decades to come - and the Kremlin will always be there in the background!

2. The Gronau uranium enrichment plant and its neighboring plant in Almelo/NL together supply up to 20% of the world market for enriched uranium - the German shares belong to RWE and E.ON, which will remain nuclear companies even after the Emsland and Isar II nuclear power plants have been shut down.

3. Nuclear waste of various categories is piled up in Lingen, Gronau and Ahaus. In Lingen and Ahaus there are castors with highly radioactive nuclear waste. Further Castor transports have been announced for Ahaus, including from Jülich and Munich-Garching.
Thousands of tons of depleted uranium hexafluoride are stored in Gronau as nuclear waste, for which there is (of course) no safe disposal in Germany because the uranium waste was easily exported to Russia until 2020.

4. Against all reason, another nuclear plant is to be put into operation in NRW with the so-called nuclear waste logistics center Würgassen, although the location was obviously only chosen according to political criteria (a nuclear power plant was already there, so the area is "existing" ). There is therefore strong resistance on the ground.

5. Also against all reason and against strong, decades-long and technically very well-founded resistance, a dilapidated and completely unsuitable "final repository" for medium and low-level radioactive nuclear waste is to be put into operation in Lower Saxony with the Konrad shaft. That too would lead to a new nuclear site - for millennia!

This is just a small excerpt from the current list of nuclear concerns - a real phase-out of nuclear power looks different.

That is why we are calling for a demonstration at the fuel element factory and at the nuclear power plant in Lingen on April 15th. Preparations are already in full swing. We want to put the last nail on the nuclear power plant together and at the same time prevent the expansion of the fuel element factory. We won't be fooled. The expansion plans for this nuclear plant and the uranium deals with Russia meet our resolute resistance!

More information on the specific demo process in Lingen will follow soon!

And of course we will also show our solidarity with the hard-fighting anti-lignite initiatives in the Rhineland on April 15 in front of the RWE nuclear power plant - coal and uranium must stay in the ground!

Three more messages:

1. The Russian nuclear ship "Mikhail Dudin" is already back in the North Sea and is officially heading for Dunkirk, estimated arrival February 15.2, 14 p.m. However, like last year, the nuclear freighter can also turn off to Rotterdam at the last moment to unload uranium for Lingen or to take fuel elements for Russia/Kazakhstan/China - hence the yellow alert in Lingen for this week!

2. From 3rd to 5th March the third "warning blockade" of the "Shutdown" campaign takes place at the Isar II nuclear power plant: www.runterfahren.org.
More than 980 people have already signed the self-commitment to shut down - that's almost 1000!

3. On March 3rd, the next global climate strike of the Fridays will also take place, which we hereby also call for.

Nuclear-free climate greetings
Sofa (immediate phase-out of nuclear power) Münster, action alliance Münsterland against nuclear plants
www.sofa-ms.de, www.urantransport.de

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Manifesto for Peace | negotiation peace

Can you stand up for peace and negotiations with Wagenknecht?

The rift in the milieu and the political oath of disclosure of the green petty bourgeoisie.

Above all, the "Manifesto for Peace" divided the green milieu. No other newspaper than the taz railed more resolutely against the paper, which was initiated by Alice Schwarzer and Sarah Wagenknecht, signed by a colorful mix of scientists, artists, politicians and public thinkers and supported by more than 330.000 citizens by signature on change.org.

Olive mainstream sets the tone

There is no sign of the rift that is dividing the green milieu in the once "alternative left" paper: the mainstream in olive green sets the tone there. Jan Feddersen speaks of a "Manifesto for Submission" without bothering with justifications and rational discussion or even critically addressing the argumentation of the authors "Negotiating does not mean surrendering" ...

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Wind energy | Bureaucracy | Priority to renewables

Wind Energy Verdict:

Authorities must give priority to renewable energies

Greifswald - Last year, the federal government included the special importance of renewable energies (RE) in the EEG. The construction and operation of renewable energy systems are therefore in the overriding public interest. A current judgment from Greifswald takes up this principle and demands more speed from the responsible approval authority.

The Higher Administrative Court (OVG) Greifswald decided in a judgment last week (February 07.02.2023th, 5) that a suing wind energy company is entitled to a decision on the application for an immission control permit for the construction of a wind turbine (Az. 171 K 22/ 2022 OVG). The OVG found that the authority responsible for the approval had not decided on the application within a reasonable period of time. The main reason for the delay was dealing with questions of monument protection. In addition, the judges emphasize the principle of overriding public interest in the expansion of renewable energies, which is anchored in the EEG in XNUMX ...

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Fossil | Greenwashing | Climate neutral

Corporations and their climate promises: Intransparent and not very plausible

According to a study, the climate targets of companies are far from sufficient to limit global warming. In addition, some calculate their reductions beautifully.

BERLIN taz | Things are going well for the climate-damaging fossil fuel economy: Multinationals such as Shell, BP and TotalEnergies have presented their annual results and reported huge revenues. Demand for oil and gas was high, mainly because of Russia's war against Ukraine, and prices were high. Climate protection also took a back seat to 1,2 degrees of global warming.

The oil company BP even wants to adjust its climate target – downwards. He had actually promised to reduce his oil production by 2030 percent by 40. Now it should only be 25 percent.

However, it is not just the directly climate-damaging sectors whose promises must be treated with caution. At least that is what a study by the think tank New Climate Institute and the environmental organization Carbon Market Watch suggests, which will be published this Monday. For the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, the experts examined the climate targets of 24 global corporations that describe themselves as climate-friendly.

The result: the proclaimed goals do not match what would be necessary ...

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Antarctica | Temperature rise

Record low in Antarctic sea ice

The Southern Ocean is more ice-free than it has been since satellite measurements began

All-time low: The sea ice around Antarctica, which has been stable for a long time, has reached a new record low this year. At the beginning of February 2023, only 2,2 million square kilometers of the Southern Ocean were covered by sea ice - such a low value had not been documented since satellite measurements began 40 years ago. This means that the ice melt, which has accelerated sharply in recent years, will continue in the Antarctic summer.

While Arctic sea ice has been shrinking for decades, Antarctic sea ice has long been considered relatively stable. Although it is rather thin overall and thaws a lot in summer, it is formed again over a correspondingly large area in the cold winters. Due to these strong seasonal fluctuations, the area of ​​the Antarctic sea ice varies between 18 to 20 million square kilometers in winter and a minimum of around three million square kilometers in summer.

New record minimum

But meanwhile a change can also be seen in the Antarctic: Last year the sea ice in the Southern Ocean reached a new record minimum, now an even more drastic low is in the offing, as satellite images show. "On February 8, 2023, with an area of ​​2,20 million square kilometers, the previous record minimum from 2022 was already undercut," reports sea ice physicist Christian Haas from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) ...

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13. February 1950 (Broken Arrow) Princess Royal Island, CAN

Wikipedia

B-36 crash in British Columbia 1950

A B-36 crashed in British Columbia on February 13, 1950, killing five crew members. A nuclear bomb was also lost.

On February 13, 1950, the US Air Force Convair B-36 long-range bomber took off from Eielson Air Force Base for a training flight. The destination was Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Wort. Three of the six engines caught fire. The crew relieved the onboard Mark 4 uncored nuclear bomb; it detonated conventionally in the air. The crew jumped out of the plane; of the 17 crew members, 12 survived. The B36 itself crashed into Mount Kologet in British Columbia...

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absturz_einer_B-36_in_British_Columbia_1950

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Accidents

Between 1950 and 1980, 32 accidents involving American nuclear weapons alone were reported. According to research by Eric Schlosser, between 1950 and 1968 the US government recorded at least 700 "significant" accidents and incidents involving around 1250 nuclear weapons. In the 1950s and 1960s in particular, many weapons had to be dropped from bombers during forced landings. Some of the weapons were never recovered because they were dropped (but not detonated) in the oceans. Greenpeace estimates that around 50 nuclear bombs were lost. The US officially misses eleven bombs. Radioactive contamination was detected in several cases...

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernwaffe#Unfälle

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12. February

Power grid | Network expansion

Trend for nationalized pipelines:

Praise from Berlin because Tennet is thinking about selling

The federal government may buy the largest German transmission network. Dutch operator shys away from capital expenditure for electricity highways.

The Federal Ministry of Economics said on Friday in response to journalists' questions in Berlin that it welcomed the fact that Tennet, as announced by the Dutch state-owned company earlier in the morning, wants to explore a full sale. In this context, the federal government has been holding “talks and negotiations” with the Dutch government on the Tennet network area since October. The reason for the talks is "a very significant network expansion", which is not least pending for the transmission networks and "above all affects the control area of ​​the transmission system operator Tennet as the largest German transmission system operator".

Tennet admitted in the morning that, given the very high need for investments in network expansion for the further expansion of weather-dependent renewable energy systems, it had an ever-increasing share of its own requirements. For Tennet's "German activities", this is currently estimated at 15 billion euros...

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Greenpeace | lawsuit taxonomy | EU Commission

Sustainable investment:

Greenpeace sues against eco-labels for nuclear reactors

The environmental group wants to stop the EU Commission's controversial taxonomy law. Austria's government has also initiated proceedings. The regulation classifies certain investments in nuclear and gas-fired power plants as sustainable.

The EU Commission rejected the objection - now one of the most controversial Brussels laws is being sued: In September, environmental groups lodged a complaint against the taxonomy law. This regulation classifies investments in nuclear and gas power plants as sustainable under certain circumstances, and the regulation has been in effect since the turn of the year. The Commission dismissed the complaint last week. Greenpeace has now announced that it will file a lawsuit with the EU court in Luxembourg in April.

And it's not the only lawsuit: the Austrian government has also filed a lawsuit. Other governments can join the lawsuit until early March. So far, however, only Luxembourg has promised this step. The traffic light coalition in Berlin is also dissatisfied with the Commission's so-called delegated act, but could not agree to go to court ...

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India | Solar expansion | Renewables

India wants to phase out coal

The government is providing around four billion euros for the switch. Solar expansion in particular is picking up speed.

India wants to invest more in the conversion of its energy supply and move away from coal, oil and natural gas in the long term, even if it is currently benefiting from the NATO sanctions against Russia and is importing more oil from there.

The budget presented at the beginning of February earmarked the equivalent of a little more than four billion euros for the "decarbonisation of industry and agriculture". One of the plans is the production of so-called green hydrogen, i.e. electrolysis with electricity from renewable sources ...

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Current news+

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Climate protection | Fossil Lobby | emission of greenhouse gases

Buzzword climate neutrality, saviors of the fossil lobby and the talk of alarmism

Until now, science has tended to underestimate the threat to the global climate, emphasizes Hartmut Graßl, physicist and member of the editorial board of Klimareporter°. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology have now opened up a new era of climate modeling for him.

Klimareporter°: Mr Graßl, when it comes to decarbonization, Germany pays too little attention to sufficiency, kritisiert a study of the academy project "Energy Systems of the Future". It’s a truism that we won’t achieve climate neutrality without using less energy, material, mobility and consumption – isn’t it?

Hartmut Grassl: The word "carbon neutrality" is to the buzzword become, especially among those who only mean moderate climate protection and not the full transformation of society into a truly sustainable one. You don't know us from the Paris Agreement are not called upon to be climate neutral, only to be greenhouse gas neutral.

The latter means that we – and this applies to each country separately – should bring sources and sinks of greenhouse gases to net zero in the second half of this century.

For example, those who reforest in high northern latitudes to compensate for greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming can achieve greenhouse gas neutrality.

But at the same time it will not be climate neutral, because it further increases global warming because areas that are snow-covered until spring without forest scatter back a lot of solar energy – in the range of 60 to 80 percent.

If these areas become areas with forest, they scatter back far less, only about 30 percent, even when there is snow cover. So this region with forest absorbs far more solar energy overall and thus becomes warmer.

Climate neutrality is therefore more demanding than greenhouse gas neutrality, because for the former the solar radiation area must also be taken into account and not just the thermal radiation area. Because a coniferous forest - the so-called dark fir tree - often only scatters back around ten to twelve percent of the solar radiation, but a grassland area a few percentage points more, even in our latitudes afforestation is not always climate-neutral.

Now to the debate buzzword "sufficiency".

That the annual use of primary energy per capita in Germany has increased from just over 20 to around 175 in the last 155 years gigajoule has shrunk - also because the share of regenerative energies increased - and fell to a new minimum of 2020 gigajoules in 149 due to corona is almost never mentioned in the debate about sufficiency, but nevertheless represents a comparatively favorable starting position for our country.

Also the long term easy decrease per capita meat consumption is another indication of the effectiveness of the sufficiency debate in parts of the population. Unfortunately, this positive development in our own country is at least partially nullified by meat exports.

One of the major levers that we have in our hands in the direction of sufficiency is increasing the use of public transport – as long as his supply density increases – as well as reducing car traffic, at least in the cities.

Above all, however, what is important for sufficiency is a constant development away from the linear economy - with lots of new raw materials and a lot of waste - towards one Recycling. This is particularly evident when it comes to energy supply. The use of renewable energies thus presupposes the availability of, in principle, non-renewable ones metals ahead.

Instead of constantly demanding efforts towards sufficiency for the individual, regulations are needed to gradually increase the recycling rate for materials with valuable content.

The civil society debate about sufficiency will become stronger and with a growing approval rate - among other things because of greater psychological strain - also allow state regulations.

Continue reading ...

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Background knowledge

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Map of the nuclear world:

Climate change threatens all of humanity, the disaster catches the poorest only first ...

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The internal search for

consumption and climate

brought the following results, among others:

June 24, 2022 - This is how expensive emissions certificates have to be to really make a difference

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April 29, 2022 - How climate policy was designed to fail

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December 27, 2021 - How Germany's supposedly sustainable lifestyle is destroying the earth

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YouTube

Keyword search: consumption and climate

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Konsum und Klima

Videos:

Volker Pispers - 8:16

... and climate protection - or was it consumer climate protection

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daily news - 3:06

Global meat consumption as a climate killer

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

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Ecosia

This search engine is planting trees!

Keyword search: consumption and climate

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Konsum und Klima

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Wikipedia

Sustainable consumption

Sustainable consumption is part of a sustainable way of life and consumer behavior: buying products that are manufactured in an environmentally and socially responsible manner can exert a political influence on global problems in order to minimize the economic, ecological and social costs.

Efforts to promote fair trade are a well-known example of the global dimension of purchasing decisions. Consumers should take slightly more expensive goods from smaller producers in developing countries and thus support fair working conditions. The purchase decision is also decisive in other respects, taking into account above all the operating and follow-up costs of a product. This applies to later energy consumption as well as to easy repairability or the longevity of the products.

The term ethical consumption is sometimes used synonymously with sustainable consumption. More generally, ethical consumption is consumption that is influenced by the consumer's ethical considerations, not just in terms of sustainability. In particular, the question of whether one form of meat production is more compatible with animal welfare than another has nothing to do with the category of "sustainability"; but the question is of central importance for ethically oriented consumers

[...]

Waiver of consumption

The concept of sustainable consumption is opposed to the concept of abstaining from consumption. The focus here is on the idea that one could consciously forego the enjoyment of available goods, if necessary repair old ones, buy, rent or exchange used ones, or produce a new product from an old one by upcycling it. At the end of November, the annual action day for consumer waivers takes place, the Kauf-nix-Tag, see also: Sufficiency (ecology).

Sustainable consumption by individual consumers

People who practice a sustainable lifestyle are referred to as LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). People who consciously consume less meat because they want to counteract the negative environmental impact of factory farming are called flexitarians...

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Newsletter VI 2023 - February 5nd to 11th

Newspaper article 2023

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