Newsletter XXII 2023

Construction of Hinkley Point C, one of Europe's largest nuclear reactors, is progressing with Chinese participation, exclusive satellite images show. But it is already a memorial to escalating costs. And there is a huge crash between the Chinese, France's energy company EDF and the British. Other nuclear power projects have already been cancelled. Economy from above is a cooperation with LiveEO.

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EDF also had to adjust the costs of the project several times: While the initial figure was £18 billion, the construction of the power plant is now expected to cost more than £32 billion – a cost increase of 80 percent.

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EDF will receive a guaranteed electricity price of £35 per megawatt hour for 92,50 years. If the market price falls below this amount, electricity customers across the country, whether they are EDF customers or not, have to pay the difference in the form of a surcharge. The spending watchdogs from the National Audit Office (NAO) have therefore sharply criticized this regulation.

This means that British consumers will face additional costs of up to £35 billion. The power plant will only deliver an additional net output of 3,2 gigawatts. For comparison: British wind turbines already had a capacity of over 28 gigawatts last year, and the trend is rapidly increasing.

[...]

One reason why Great Britain still relies on nuclear energy, which is expensive and difficult to finance, is probably military. The country relies on a civilian nuclear energy sector to maintain its manageable nuclear arsenal with some degree of independence. Critics therefore complained early on about the involvement of a Chinese state-owned company ...

Namibia | Energy transition | green hydrogen | Colonialism

Agreement with Namibia

A "Global Blueprint for Green Hydrogen"

A mega-project for the global energy transition is to be created in Namibia with German participation. Investments in the amount of the country's annual gross domestic product are planned. Job guarantees are also intended to dispel concerns about "green colonialism".

Boom with hydrogen instead of diamonds? With German help, one of the largest hydrogen projects in the world to date is to be built in a national park in Namibia near the port city of Lüderitz.

In the former diamond mining area in the desert it is extremely dry, nothing grows except for a few bushes. There are two resources here in southwest Africa that are becoming increasingly important in a post-fossil world: lots of sun and lots of wind.

From this, hydrogen can be produced cheaply, which, converted into ammonia, can also be exported to Europe and Germany. And that is exactly what the course has now been set for.

[...]

We are laying the foundation for a just energy transition in Namibia and serving as a blueprint for other countries in the Global South."

This is supposed to allay concerns that the new hydrogen world could establish a new green colonialism in which Africa supplies Europe with energy resources and, apart from environmental damage, gains nothing from it.

In fact, it was agreed that 3.000 percent of the more than 90 permanent jobs in the Lüderitz project should be filled with Namibian workers. In addition, 30 percent of the required goods, services and materials are to be procured locally. And the seawater desalination plant will be dimensioned in such a way that the growing city of Lüderitz will also benefit from it with a better supply of fresh water.

2. June

subsidies for industry because of wasting energy

Why the 50 billion gift to the industry is a botch

Energy and climate - compact: Federal government wants to reward industrial energy waste more. At the same time, electricity prices have been falling again for a long time. About fossil business as usual instead of renewable intelligence.

As reported, the federal government wants to heavily subsidize industrial electricity. Up to 30 billion euros could flow and the German trade union federation, whose member IG Metall has been drumming for months, expressly welcomes this favor.

A level of six cents for 80 percent of the need is appropriate and balanced, according to a press release from the association. Meanwhile, the DGB boss Yasmin Fahimi seems to have a communication problem with her press office, because, as mentioned, she even demands an electricity price of four cents per kilowatt hour in the Handelsblatt, which would add another 20 billion euros and 50 billion euros in subsidies.

[...]

Instead of new subsidies - newer, because industrial electricity has already been favored in many ways - shouldn't it be better to promote this solar self-sufficiency? Perhaps also the use of electrolysers for self-sufficiency with hydrogen?

Or do you really want to reward the industry for having been hesitant to use the enormous savings potential that it has in energy consumption for many years because of its eye on quick profits?

Renewables | Extension

Record expansion: IEA expects 440 GW of renewable energies worldwide in 2023 - China at the top

Brussels – The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects rapid global market growth and a record increase in new plants for the current year 2023 for renewable energies worldwide. Higher fossil fuel prices and concerns about energy security are driving the strong expansion of photovoltaics and wind power, according to the IEA's latest update report.

According to the IEA, the global increase in renewable power plant capacity will increase by 2023 GW to more than 107 GW (440 MW) of new renewable power plant capacity in 440 alone. That's a record 000 percent increase in market growth.

[...]

Newly installed PV and wind capacity has saved EU electricity consumers an estimated €2021bn over 2023-100, according to the IEA, by crowding out more expensive fossil fuel power generation. According to the new IEA report, wholesale electricity prices in Europe would have been 2022 percent higher in 8 without the additional renewable capacity.

Chemical industry | kept silent | poison | PFAS

Suppressed Findings

How the chemical industry obscured the toxicity of eternal chemicals

Substances found in many materials are non-degradable and in some cases highly toxic. Manufacturers have known this for much longer than the general public

They can be found in a wide variety of products such as food packaging, pans, shoe spray, extinguishing agents or cosmetics - wherever their practical properties are required: chemicals from the PFAS group of substances (short for per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances). These substances are oil and water repellent and also prevent pollution. However, their obvious benefits are offset by enormous disadvantages: PFAS are not degradable or only extremely slowly under environmental conditions. If they get into nature, they remain there practically permanently, which is why they are also called "forever chemicals". They can also accumulate in human and animal bodies - with potentially harmful consequences.

[...]

How long the problem of PFAS has actually been known in the industry is reported by a US research group in the journal "Annals of Global Health": According to this, large US manufacturers already had clear indications of the enormous toxicity of some PFAS and the problem for people and the environment. But instead of informing the public or eliminating the chemicals in question, internal research has been kept secret and legal regulation of these substances has been delayed...

1. June

France | EDF EPR | Nuclear phase-out canceled in France

Politics for nuclear and agricultural lobby:

Macron's miserable ecological balance

French President Emmanuel Macron believes the EU has passed enough environmental standards. Not only is its energy transition faltering.

PARIS taz | Compared to the USA, China and other economic powerhouses, has the EU already done enough for the environment and the climate and can it now rest on its laurels? That seems to be the view of French President Emmanuel Macron. He thinks that in Europe we have already “regulated a lot, more than all of our neighbours”. And in order not to lose ground in the competition, he would like a "break from regulation in Europe". He is not alone in this: Similar warnings about (allegedly) too much "bureaucracy" at the expense of the competitiveness of industry and agriculture come from Belgium. Macron also receives support from the conservative EPP group in the European Parliament.

But climate change is not taking a break. And the environmental record of the President, who took office in 2017 with the motto "Make our planet great again", is anything but glorious.

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Macron also deserves the grade “insufficient” in the field of energy transition. As promised by his predecessor, he had the oldest nuclear power plant in Fessenheim shut down, but at the same time he initiated a massive investment program: six reactors with EPR technology have been ordered, eight more are planned as options, and France is also to build "mini reactors". develop. The "phase-out" target of at least gradually reducing the proportion of electricity produced from nuclear energy to 50 percent has been almost unnoticed removed from Macron's energy policy...

Chomsky | Fake News | Fake quote

How Noam Chomsky fell victim to a fake news attack

Did the 94-year-old really whitewash Russia's war against Ukraine? A British newspaper reported. Here's the real story. The Telepolis editorial.

This article about an interview with the American intellectual Noam Chomsky caused a stir. Just over a month ago, at the end of April, the British weekly New Statesman published an article in which Chomsky, now 94, is said to have described Russia's military action in Ukraine as comparatively cautious. "Russia is fighting more humanely than the United States in Iraq," the newspaper headlined, but Chomsky never said that.

The fact that this was not initially made public was due to the New Statesman itself. The editors put the text of their Berlin correspondent Ido Vock, who had spoken with Chomsky, online. But the video of the interview was searched for on the homepage in vain.

It is now clear that Chomsky, a prominent representative of the US peace movement, has not described Russia's war against Ukraine as "humane" or "more humane". Not that Russia is acting "reservedly and moderately" militarily. Both statements, which brought massive criticism to Chomsky, were put in his mouth ...

Renewables | Research | humidity

Clean electricity from the air: breakthrough in renewable energies

A research team from the USA makes a discovery that should be worth developing further: A thin film can produce clean electricity from the air.

Amherst – In times of climate change, renewable energy is an important issue. However, electricity production from solar energy or wind power has a major disadvantage: electricity is only produced when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. However, a research team from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst has now presented a possibility that could revolutionize electricity production.

Xiaomeng Liu's team discovered the so-called "generic Air-gen effect". "The air contains an enormous amount of electricity," explains co-author Jun Yao. “Think of a cloud, which is nothing but a mass of water droplets. Each of these droplets has a charge and if the conditions are right, the cloud can generate a lightning strike," the researcher continues. "We don't know how to reliably capture energy from lightning. However, we have developed a small cloud that produces energy predictably and continuously for us so that we can harvest it," Yao explains in a statement from his university.

energy company | tax money | Uniper

Why Uniper doesn't earn our tax money billions

Energy and climate – compact: The energy company could set a good example. But despite state funds, the climate continues to be destroyed. Germany has even become the owner of nuclear power plants.

What actually happened to Uniper, the energy stock corporation that received so many gifts from German taxpayers in 2022 and was finally quasi nationalized? After all, the federal government had spent several billion euros a few months ago.

The company was spun off from E.on in 2016. Above all, the group wanted to get rid of its fossil power plants and later went through some restructuring together with RWE. Among other things, the area of renewable energies was handed over to RWE in 2018.

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A double-digit billion amount from the state coffers flowed for loans, capital increases and share purchases. The Federal Republic of Germany finally became the sole owner in two steps. After all, the help was linked to restrictions on executive salaries and bonuses. What was the exception a year earlier with the Corona aid.

In December 2022, the EU Commission finally approved the quasi-nationalization subject to various conditions. The company may be supported with up to 34,5 billion euros, Brussels had decided.

Among other things, various foreign businesses must be sold by 2026 at the latest. In Germany, Uniper has to part with the scandalous Datteln 4 power plant and the district heating business...

31. May

Global Warming | tipping point | Climate research

Study on climate research

Already exceeded the limits of the earth?

An international climate research team believes that a safe and just life for all people on earth is hardly possible anymore. Almost all limits have already been exceeded - but there is also criticism of the study.

The state of the earth and the well-being of humanity are closely linked. This is the starting point of the "Earth Commission", an international association of scientists. Together they have now named safe and just boundaries of the earth system and put them in numbers. They published their study in the journal "Nature".

Only when the planet is in good condition is a safe and just life possible for all people and other species. And not only today, but also for future generations. According to the research team led by the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Johan Rockström, this situation can only exist if the planet's resilience limits are not exceeded in eight fundamental areas.

It is about global warming, the condition and functionality of ecosystems, the availability of surface and groundwater, and the pollution of air and the environment with pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus. The study is based on scientific findings from the past few years and computer modelling...

AfD | fascis | Populis | Springer's Bild newspaper | fear mongers

Mouthpiece of right-wing narratives amazed where approval for AfD comes from

Unfortunately, we are not here Postilion. The most far-reaching disinformation sheet in the country, BILD, was surprised to find out why the far-right AfD is currently enjoying more approval than ever. At Forsa 17% or at the controversial INSA 18%. Compared to the results of the Bundestag elections, the SPD lost about 7 percentage points at Forsa, the FDP almost 5 and the Greens almost one. Let's try to discuss this in a fact-based manner - that is, quite untypical for BILD.

uncertainty

Johannes Hillje, policy and communications consultant recently on Twitter published an in-depth analysis of the rising popularity of the AfD. According to Hillje, it is wrong to reduce the party's polling high to a single factor such as the traffic light coalition, the Union or the wokeness discourse. Such simplified interpretations, he argues, ultimately play into the hands of the AfD.

In reality, the support for the AfD is multicausal and complex. Hillje highlights that the biggest jump in the polls for the AfD came in July 2022, when there was general uncertainty in the context of inflation, energy shortages and the economic downturn. "The AfD was able to capitalize on these fears by turning them into anger at the 'establishment'," he explains. It's also an "against" party...

IMHO

I can only agree with the analyzes of fascists, populists and all the nasty fearmongers surrounding Springer's Bild Zeitung. Nevertheless, I have a bad feeling when I read them. All of these well-intentioned articles could also be read as 'they don't know what they're doing', and I don't think so. Green haters and political climate changers like Döpfner, Markwort and all the other secret or sinister propagandists of the AfD know exactly what they are doing, and current poll numbers show how well it works...

Chernobyl | Responsibility | Ukraine War

Attacks on the power grid

Chernobyl and the Great Danger of War

At the beginning of the war, Russian soldiers occupied Chernobyl. For the workforce present, it was the longest shift in the history of nuclear power. The struggle for the safety of the plant pushed everyone to their limits - but the danger has not been completely averted to this day.

The silver sarcophagus is intended to protect the radiant ruins of reactor 4 in Chernobyl - i.e. to prevent radiation from escaping. However, the plant continues to be a danger, especially during the Ukraine war. The new shell is only made of sheet metal - it offers no protection against bullets. Everything could collapse and a highly radioactive dust cloud could contaminate the entire region...

Atmosphere | human made | CO₂ emissions | temperature rise

Fingerprint Techniques

Human influence on temperature changes in the atmosphere

According to a new measurement method, temperature changes in the middle to upper stratosphere were undoubtedly caused by human CO₂ emissions.

Livermore (USA). Differences in the temperature trends of the lowest layer of the atmosphere (troposphere) and the stratosphere have long been accepted by scientists as an indication of human influences on the climate. The influence of humans in the middle to upper stratosphere, in which, according to satellite measurements, there have also been strong changes in the temperature structure in recent years, has hardly been investigated to date. The cause of the temperature changes has therefore not yet been clarified.

Extending fingerprinting techniques used to identify human impacts on climate, researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have now for the first time studied the middle to upper stratosphere, located 25 to 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface . The new method can analyze human influences on the climate five times more precisely...

Great Britain | Nuclear power plant world market | shut down

Nuclear power plant world market without dynamics - Great Britain will shut down the world's most nuclear power plants in 2022

Münster – The global market for nuclear power plants will remain at the low level of the previous year in 2022, with no signs of a renaissance. This is according to data from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

In 2022, only six new nuclear power plants will be connected to the grid or have reached criticality. Five old nuclear power stations were shut down in the same period, most of them in the UK...

Freedom for Press and Art, Julian Assange and Roger Waters ...

Freedom for Roger Waters!

Hardly anyone notices how bizarre the debate about the Pink Floyd founder is. And what dangers it poses. A Telepolis editorial.

It's about a flying pig, a leather coat on stage, an armband with crossed hammers: the debate about the concerts by Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters can hardly be surpassed in terms of bizarreness. One could dismiss it with a weary shrug of the shoulders – did it not reveal a tendency that was as authoritarian as it was revisionist.

After all, even the police of the former Reich and today's federal capital Berlin are now investigating the 79-year-old Briton. There is initial suspicion, it is reported, that the musician's appearance in a long black leather coat, which is supposed to be reminiscent of SS uniforms, is likely to "violate the dignity of the victims of National Socialism, glorify National Socialism and disturb public peace ".

Wait a moment! Did they really write "... to glorify National Socialism"?

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Whoever wrote this formulation and this accusation in the Berlin judicial authorities is at best proving his (or her) ignorance of music history. Because both stylistic devices are borrowed from the character "Pink" from "The Wall" from 1979, a fictitious fascist rock star. And already in the video for "The Wall" the hammers marched with - unmistakably - styles in black and red.

Whoever thinks this leads to a criminal accusation of glorification - not just trivialization! – of National Socialism knows as much about subjects as Milli Vanilli does about singing. And basically, this admission of the Berlin judiciary should itself be subjected to a criminal investigation because of the obvious crime of honor ...

Japan | Madness | Duration Unlimited

Despite the risk of earthquakes

Japan extends lifespan of nuclear reactors

In order to reduce dependence on oil and gas and to achieve climate protection goals, nuclear power plants in Japan will be able to run indefinitely in the future. Parliament passed a corresponding law - despite the danger of earthquakes.

After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the government in Japan shut down the country's nuclear reactors. Now they are to be connected to the network again, and their running time is to be extended. Parliament has enacted a law that will no longer limit service life to 60 years - but potentially unlimited service life...

30. May

industry electricity price | debt state

Cheap electricity for industry could cost Germany up to 50 billion euros

Unions want industrial electricity price at four cents. Without help, German industry is hardly competitive. What does that have to do with a delayed energy transition.

The German economy is under pressure. In an international comparison, the electricity prices in this country are high. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) would therefore like to cap it for industry. This project again shows the potential fault lines within the governing coalition.

Habeck's plan is to cap the price of electricity for industry at six cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) by 2030. That would be about half the current price. This would cost the state up to 30 billion euros. The industrial electricity price would be financed via the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) – in other words: via debt.

In principle, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) welcomed the project, only that they want to cap the electricity price at four cents per kWh.

[...]

In the meantime, the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) has also presented an alternative proposal for the industrial electricity price...

The DIHK proposal envisages that the state should initially "assume as much as possible" or "reduce as much as possible" taxes, levies and fees. If there were still hardship cases, there would have to be additional measures there. Companies and households could be relieved by around ten billion euros if the electricity tax and other levies were reduced.

United States | heating law | Natural gas

Gas heaters: The dispute is also raging in the USA

Washington state suspends decision on heat pumps in new buildings. Final decision in August. That's what the argument is about.

Not only in Germany, but also in the USA there is an ongoing dispute about gas heating and heat pumps. Most recently, Washington State postponed the passage of a new regulation that would make electric heat pumps mandatory in the far Northwest of the United States.

This is reported, among other things, by the US news service for the energy and environmental sector E&ENews. The vote has been postponed by three months.

The background is a judgment by a US federal court that overturned a ban on gas heating in new buildings that was passed in Berkeley, California, in 2019. The West Coast city is appealing April's verdict, but pro-gas heaters have the upper hand for now...

industry electricity price | Expansion of renewables | Energy prices

IW calls for the expansion of renewables

According to the study, electricity costs for industry will soon be unaffordable

With the move away from natural gas, the demand for electricity increases. According to an IW study, Germany is ill-equipped for this. The pace of expansion of wind and solar systems must pick up speed, otherwise industry and consumers will face unaffordable energy prices.

According to a study, Germany must massively accelerate the expansion of renewable energies and the associated grids from now until 2030 if it wants to keep its industry at the location. This is the result of an as yet unpublished study by the industry-related Institute of the German Economy (IW), from which the newspaper "Rheinische Post" reports. According to this, German natural gas consumption will fall by around 2030 percent or 17,5 terawatt hours by 136 compared to 2022. However, the demand for electricity will increase to the same extent, since companies and consumers will increasingly have to electrify their consumption.

"The targeted share of renewables of 80 percent by 2030 therefore refers to a higher total electricity consumption, so that the pace of expansion of wind and photovoltaic systems must pick up speed," write the IW researchers...

29. May

heating law | Springer press | agitation

Habeck softens the heating law:

No reason to be happy

Habeck's announcement is the result of a smear campaign by the Springer media. But it sends fatal signals to citizens and the economy.

The Green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck has announced a relaxation of the heating exchange law. He takes into account the immense public excitement and the falling poll numbers for the Greens. That's understandable, but not good news. The later the heating replacement is tackled, the worse it is not only for climate protection. Homeowners who think they will benefit from softening are wildly mistaken. Anyone who has a new gas or oil heating system installed will soon be groaning at the enormous costs - regardless of whether the device is in a new or old house. Climate-friendly heating systems will only become standard and therefore much cheaper than they are today if industry and trade adapt very quickly. And this requires clear signals from politicians.

Habeck's announcement is the result of a smear campaign by the Springer media, which fatally not only joined the Union, but also its coalition partner, the FDP. With false claims and infamous distortions, this fossil-friendly alliance is not only trying to damage this project, but also to discredit climate protection and the Greens as a whole...

Natural gas | fossil lobby | lying | reality denial

Climate economist Claudia Kemfert: "We were served lies"

Gas Germany's best-known energy and climate economist is angry about the gas heating debate, a catastrophic energy policy and about the fact that those responsible for the supply crisis are just getting away with it

Energy economics is usually something for those in the know and specialists, it's about things like balancing group accounting for electricity or the merit order of the German power plant park. Since the Ukraine war, however, the energy industry and energy policy have suddenly been concerned with how long we will still have gas for heating and why electricity prices are so high. And which mistakes of the past are exactly responsible for this. Claudia Kemfert published a book about it in February, it's called shock waves.

der Freitag: Ms. Kemfert, you are trying to come to terms with the errors and wrong turns in German energy policy over the last few decades, in other words all the developments that led to the gas crisis that we are still stuck in. It seems that a “afterward is smarter” narrative is gaining ground, something like: “If we had only known that Russia would invade Ukraine and cut off our gas, we would not have built Nord Stream. But no one could have imagined that it would end like this..."

Claudia Kemmert: And that is exactly what is wrong. Not only could we have known, we should have known that Russia is using its energy supplies as a political bargaining chip. Because Russia has actually done just that over and over again in all sorts of contexts. We should have known that being dependent on one supplier and being dependent on fossil fuel sources makes us vulnerable to blackmail. I personally, but also many other scientists, have repeatedly warned in studies and through public statements that we are building the Nord Stream pipelines - due to artificially extrapolated gas requirements for which there was no basis. The problem was obvious. We walked in with our eyes wide open.

How was that possible?

We've been told lies, simple as that. Reality was denied, insights swept under the table...

Climate change | Disaster | Adaptation | Apocalypse

The New Climate Change Adaptation Story: Don't Be So Big!

Downfall Who still talks about catastrophe? Adaptation is the new trend in the climate narrative. A trend that has many schoolmasters - and is nothing more than a new edition of fascized pseudo-Darwinism

What has been the background noise of all discourses and debates for some time under the keywords "climate change", "global warming" or simply "catastrophe" has long since passed from the stage of a scenario to that of direct evidence. Forest fires, floods, storms, droughts, species extinction, glacier extinction, crop failures take place. The next foreseeable stage is the transformation of "somehow" connected individual catastrophes into a catastrophic state.

The trouble with catastrophic evidence lies in its unpredictability. There are people, ideas and cultures that still prefer a certain apocalypse to a state of chaotic openness. But there are also people, ideas and cultures that banish the apocalyptic from unpredictability. Since we don't know exactly what's happening, we might as well do nothing. Worse said, keep doing what we've always done.

[...]

Söder invites you to an internship

All proponents of the adaptation narrative (let's reserve the observation that, as far as public attention is concerned, it's all men for another discourse) use the schoolmaster role: Markus Söder invites politicians from other regions to the "internship". in Bavaria, the adaptation economists Reiner Eichenberger and David Stadelmann explain in the title of their guest article in Spiegel: "This is how Germany could become a climate role model", and Markus Lanz staged himself in his show last autumn as one who did the snotty women from the last generation: "They should have confidence in their ability to adapt," he snaps at a young representative of eco-activism, and he demands even more confidence in the system, even confidence in the elderly. However, his body language shows that the adjustment he has in mind has nothing to do with trust. She demands submission.

Recycling | Plastic | Chemical industry | UN agreement

"Miracle material" with dangerous side effects

Negotiations for a UN agreement against worldwide plastic pollution begin today in Paris. Environmental organizations warn against "recycling fairy tales" in the petroleum and chemical industry and call for nationwide reusable offers.

By UN standards, that's rapid. An international plastic agreement to reduce pollution from plastic waste on land and in the sea should be negotiated as early as 2024 and come into force in 2025.

The second of a total of five rounds of negotiations on this begins today, Monday, in Paris. And the chances are not bad that significant progress will be made there. However, non-governmental organizations criticize that the goals of the planned agreement are too weak and the negotiation process is not transparent enough.

The negative consequences of the sharp increase in plastic production since the middle of the last century are undisputed. Plastic waste pollutes soil, rivers, lakes, oceans and the air and only decomposes very slowly. Microplastics in the human body pose health risks. And the production of plastics, which is currently around 400 million tons a year worldwide, is accompanied by enormous CO2 emissions ...

28. May

France | Climate change | Groundwater | drought

France fears another drought summer

The country is trying to prepare for the consequences of climate change, but not all measures are undisputed.

In the early morning of May 18, it finally rained again in the southern French town of Saint-Chamas. 24,2 millimeters were caught there in four days - not enough to make up the huge deficit after weeks without rain, but psychologically it was important, says Alain Bonnerue, who in his retirement looks after a garden full of fig, almond and fig trees cherry trees in the commune west of Aix-en-Provence. "It takes the stress out of counting the days without rain."

And there are more and more of them, especially in the south of France. In terms of climate, 2022 was an exceptional year with its record temperatures, persistent drought and sometimes dramatic forest fires. But it could also be a new normal, as feared by the highest authorities.

[...]

Last year, around 1.000 communities in southern France were temporarily supplied with water via tankers. Agricultural production fell by up to 30 percent in some places. In 2022, more than 785.000 hectares of forest burned - a sad record. It rained far too little this winter. Already in April, around half of the 96 departments in mainland France were put on alert for water shortages. As of May 1st, 68 percent of groundwater reservoirs were at low levels, 20 percent of them at very low levels. Some of the measures that were in place almost across the country last summer have already been reintroduced in places.

In some areas it is forbidden to water fields and gardens or to wash the car. In five municipalities in the south of France, building permits for private houses will no longer be issued until 2027 because the water supply cannot be guaranteed. The ban on the sale of free-standing swimming pools in the Pyrenees Orientales department on the Spanish border has caused a stir...

Ukraine War | Zaporizhia | under a false flag

Again mutual allegations of false flag actions against the Zaporizhia NPP

It is astonishing how little worrying the nuclear risk in the Ukraine war has become. Effect of a stun in the escalation carousel?

The Ukrainian military intelligence service, headed by media-loving Budanov, has again warned that Russia is planning a false-flag operation at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. The plan is to simulate an attack on the nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian armed forces, in order to then report an escape of radioactive radiation. Ukraine should be held responsible for this.

[...]

However, Renat Karchaa, an adviser to the general director of the Rosatom Group, assured on Sunday that everything is running normally and that the nuclear power plant employees and the Russian military can ward off any false flag action. Whatever Ukraine or the “collective West” is planning is predictable. As long as it is predictable, one would be successful. Of course, that leaves a loophole. And the USA also seems to be preparing for false flag actions (USA build sensor network to identify the perpetrators of nuclear explosions in Ukraine) ...

Austria | Democracy | fascis

Exhibition on Austrofascism:

Austrian fascism

An exhibition in Vienna is currently providing information about the destruction of democracy and the establishment of a corporate state around 1930 in the Alpine Republic.

Self-eliminating of the parliament", it was said in March 1933 in Austria. For many years it was also taught in schools that the authoritarian corporative state – only the left called it “Austrofascism” – was a more or less natural consequence of the failure of democratic institutions.

The exhibition "The Destruction of Democracy" in Vienna's City Hall Library now tells the other story: how Austria made the authoritarian turn and slid into civil war before it was annexed to Nazi Germany.

The global economic crisis and mass unemployment from 1929 had already worn down the democratic institutions. A coup attempt by the right-wing paramilitary Heimwehr under Walter Pfrimer in September 1931 failed, but right-wing extremists were on the rise.

votes for the NSDAP

The NSDAP, which was also active in Austria and had been a marginal force in parliament since the 1930 elections with 3 percent of the votes, suddenly achieved double-digit results of up to 1932 percent in state elections in Vienna, Lower Austria and Salzburg in 20.

The Social Democrats, still the strongest party in Parliament, were very concerned about what was happening in Germany. They tried in vain to offer the Christian Socials a common front against the Nazis in Austria. But they had other plans. Which ones does the current exhibition in the Vienna City Hall show...

Climate change | Climate Crisis | Climate catastrophe | Adaptation

Hedonism in climate change: why we should be prepared to do without

Climate change will come and affect our lives. We should adjust to that. But resistance to necessary renunciation is pointless. A replica.

Telepolis author Jörg Phil Friedrich recently expressed the fear that we will leave future generations with a world of renunciation. But this is exactly the path we are on with our consumption-oriented lifestyle, which does not meet the requirements of the climate crisis.

Because he expects people - with varying degrees of severity - to make a different kind of renunciation. In a greenhouse world, only a few can enjoy a halfway intact nature, sufficient drinking water throughout the year becomes a luxury item and heat waves restrict freedom of movement.

The question is being asked more and more often to what extent global warming can still be stopped at all and whether it wouldn't make more sense to invest resources and innovations in adapting to the changed climate conditions on earth.

However, this question ignores the fact that there is no either/or; i.e. either to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly and drastically and then to eliminate them completely, or to resort to adaptation measures.

Anyone who follows the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) knows that this international body, which hundreds of scientists work for around the world, is certainly concerned with the possibilities for humanity to adapt to the climate crisis.

The IPCC 6th Assessment Report consists of contributions from three working groups:

1. Scientific foundations of climate change.

2. Impacts of climate change, adaptation and vulnerability.

3. Climate change mitigation.

In its report published in November 2022, the second working group in particular dealt with the necessity, the possibilities, but also the limits of adaptation ...

28. to 30. May 1998 - 6 Pakistani nuclear bomb tests - Ras Koh, PAH

Wikipedia

Armed Forces of Pakistan

According to its own statements, Pakistan successfully carried out six nuclear tests on May 28th and 30th, 1998 (as a reaction to the 5 Indian tests on May 11th and 13.05.1998th, XNUMX). However, based on the seismic signals, experts assume that only two tests were actually carried out ...

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

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

Atomwaffen A - Z

https://www.atomwaffena-z.info/heute/atomwaffenstaaten/pakistan.html

Pakistan's nuclear weapons were developed under the direction of AQ Khan in the 1970s, commissioned by Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Khan had stolen plans for centrifuges from the Netherlands while he was working at the Urenco nuclear company and used them to enrich uranium and develop nuclear weapons...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Current news+

FDP | AfD | CDU CSU | Bild-Zeitung

Political style in Germany Please, strengthen the AfD

The FDP distinguishes itself within the coalition through sabotage and diversionary maneuvers. »Bild« and Union support with populist phrases. This benefits – absolutely predictably – above all another party.

Please answer the following question in your head, quickly and without thinking: Which party's supporters have the most opposition to the Greens?

Please note the answer, we will come back to it later.

If you compare the official final result of the federal election with the most recent survey by the research group elections, you can see a fairly clear result. Within the traffic light coalition, only one party gained slightly: The Greens are 16 percent in the poll and 14,8 percent in the election. The SPD, on the other hand, has lost almost six percentage points, from 25,7 to 20. And the FDP has almost halved its result, from 11,5 to 6 percent.

Sure, surveys have margins of error, are snapshots and different institutes come to slightly different results. But on the whole, all Sunday questions of the past few weeks, whether from Kantar, Forsa, Allensbach, GMS and so on, show similar results: the Greens are between 14 and 17 percent, the FDP between 6 and 8, the SPD between 18 and 20,5 ,XNUMX.

Uncertainty helps the extremists

In percentage terms, the biggest winner compared to the election result is reliably the AfD. In the election on September 26, 2021, she got 10,3 percent, now she is between 15 and 17. The AfD is a radical right-wing to right-wing extremist party, with which fortunately nobody has wanted to form a coalition so far. So how come more people seem willing to choose them?

Sure: there is uncertainty in the country, the climate crisis is actually here, and slowly everyone has understood that there will really be a transformation to slow it down and remain internationally competitive. AI, climate, war, everything is changing, everything seems to be going faster and faster. When things go wrong, the extremists with the supposedly simple solutions benefit from something like this.

At this point, however, a technical term from political science comes into play that was already a topic in this column five years ago: »Issue ownership«. The term, coined by US political scientist John Petrocik, describes the fact that certain issues can "belong" to certain parties. Climate protection is most likely to belong to the Greens, social justice is claimed by the SPD and the left alike, and so on. "Issue ownership" has an impact: If the issues of an opposition party are particularly present in the media, this party usually also benefits from it in polls and elections. This has been shown empirically several times.

The poles are not "left" and "right"

What did you think of spontaneously when you asked the opening question? My guess is: You thought that the topic "rejection of the Greens" was an AfD topic. You would be right about that: According to a study by the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, which is based on surveys in 2019 and 2020, 77 percent of AfD supporters rejected the Greens at the time. This is a top value that is only surpassed by another constellation: 92 percent of the Green Party supporters reject the AfD. The study contains these important sentences:

"In all other party supporters, there is this constellation, i.e. sympathy for the AfD and rejection of the Greens, at less than 5 percent."
»The formation of political camps is reflected in the attitudes towards the Greens and AfD.«

All of this is not overly surprising, after all, for many years the far-right AfD has been vociferously opposing the »filthy left-green green« enemy image it created itself. The Union, especially the campaigning CSU, is currently adopting this image of the enemy more and more as its own. The CSU, but also parts of the CDU, make mafia jokes about Economics Minister Robert Habeck (including the photoshopped "The Godfather" poster), adopts the anti-green slogans of the "Bild" newspaper ("Heiz-Hammer", "Heiz-Pranger", »Heating espionage«, »Heating Stasi«), speaks in unison with the AfD at every hint of strategic thinking of »planned economy«. At the same time, nobody in the Greens really questions the market economy.

The »Heiz-Stasi« already exists – in Bavaria

Incidentally, the excitement about the collection of municipal heating data, fueled by »Bild«, is pretty funny: there is already such an »energy state security agency«, such a »sniffing state« (according to Thuringian CDU chairman Mario Voigt)! Namely in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Schleswig-Holstein, which are co-governed by the Union - and in the CSU state of Bavaria. In all three countries, climate protection laws already provide for a corresponding data collection.

[...]

Lindner's funny interview sentence

As is well known, the CEO of Springer-Verlag had asked his editor-in-chief at the time: "Please strengthen the FDP." (sic) According to his SMS, the AfD actually doesn't like Mathias Döpfner "very much for climate change". But "Bild" and "Welt" also contribute to something else with their uninterrupted anti-Green campaign: Please, strengthen the AfD.

Funnily enough, FDP leader Christian Lindner, who is known to have been married to a Springer journalist for the second time, said in an interview this week: "We're not making the AfD small by adopting their slogans."

He's right about that: the FDP isn't making the AfD small by adopting its style. She makes herself small - and the AfD bigger.


Current news+	Background knowledge

Background knowledge

The map of the nuclear world

Not history, stories repeat themselves...

The internal search for

fascist | populi | Springer press

brought the following results, among others:

March 10, 2023 - False report from the "Bild" newspaper: Habeck will not cost us a trillion

November 15, 2022 - Conservative? Hypocrite!

October 31, 2022 - Crisis of democracy: "We are faced with a puzzle"

YouTube

Keyword Search: populism in Germany

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Populismus in Deutschland

Videos:

explainity from November 7, 2016 - 3:47

Populism simply explained

Y collective from 19 May 2019 - 43: 55

Germany for the Germans? How to talk to right-wing populists? RAGE!

NZZ from June 20, 2018 - 3:47

Populism: A Danger to Democracy?

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

Ecosia

This search engine is planting trees!

Keyword search: populism

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Populismus

Wikipedia

populism

Social scientists assign several attributes to the term populism (from the Latin populus, 'people'). A choice of topics and rhetoric linked to political intentions and aimed at popular sentiment is characteristic. On the one hand, it is about creating certain moods, on the other hand, it is about exploiting and strengthening existing moods for one's own political purposes. Populism often manifests itself in a specific political style and serves as a strategy for gaining power. In order to gain interpretative sovereignty in public discourse, populism makes targeted use of social digital media. Only occasionally does it appear in research as a component of individual ideologies ...

LpB BW - State Center for Civic Education

Democracy and populism do not go together

Why don't populism and populist politics fit the basic democratic idea?

Populists claim to represent the "one true people". In populist ideology, this constructed popular idea is opposed by the so-called “elite”, i.e. politicians or other enemy images, for example, who they deny the right to have a say in politics. However, a central ideal of democracy is pluralism. Simply wanting to decide who belongs to the "people" and who the state should represent is anti-pluralistic and not democratic.

Populists use a specific style of discussion. Insults and so-called "alternative facts", i.e. false, one-sided and false claims, take the place of factual debates. This hinders the political process, makes agreements more difficult, and can deter citizens. In a democracy, however, one struggles to find the best possible compromise on the basis of facts, with everyone in the conversation respecting one another.

Populists stir up distrust in democratic organizations such as governments and parliaments among their supporters, claiming that they are ruled by the "elite" and act against the will of the "real people" they imagine. Of course, in a democracy, justified and factual criticism of the institutions and processes is not only allowed, but encouraged. But fundamentally questioning the democratic process and undermining it with conspiracy stories is undemocratic...

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