Newsletter XXIII 2023

The military-industrial complex (MIK), which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about more than sixty years ago, is doing better than ever. It consumes far more taxpayers' money and finances far larger arms manufacturers than it did when Eisenhower, in his farewell speech to the nation in 1961, criticized the MIC's "unjustified influence".

A budget of $886 billion

The numbers are stunning. The Department of Energy's proposed budget for this year for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons is $886 billion. Adjusted for inflation, that's more than twice what it was at the time of Eisenhower's speech. The Pentagon now eats up more than half of the US federal budget, leaving other areas such as health, environmental protection, job training and schools to compete for the rest...

Climate Crisis | Global Warming | 1,5 degrees

New data platform

Global warming is accelerating

According to a study, the remaining budget for the 1,5-degree limit is smaller than previously thought. The lead author speaks of a "wake-up call" and calls for tougher efforts to avoid greenhouse gases.

The news of the climate crisis this spring is dramatic. There were new temperature records in April in Bangladesh, India, Laos and Thailand, with up to 45 degrees Celsius. In some places, the "perceived temperature", which takes humidity into account, was even a life-threatening 54 degrees.

After an extremely dry winter, devastating forest fires have been raging in Canada since May, and the smoke is now even fogging New York.

And now there are also worrying reports from China. 578 national weather stations recorded the highest temperatures ever recorded during this time of year. The southern province of Sichuan issued a heat warning because it has already reached over 42 degrees.

[...]

The temperature is now rising by more than 0,2 degrees per decade. Without rapid global CO2 reduction, the mean values will probably permanently break the 1,5-degree limit in the next decade ...

June 10, 2009 (INES 2?) Nuclear factory Cadarache, FRA

Dismantling of the production plant for MOX fuel elements

In June, dismantling works were carried out at the French nuclear facility Cadarache 39 kilograms of plutonium discovered. The Atomic Safety Agency ASN stopped the work on October 15, 2009 and assigned the accident to INES Category 2 "Accident". She also accused the operator of not reporting the event in time …

Wikipedia

Cadarache - ATPu production plant - dismantling

After the end of use as a production plant for MOX fuel elements in 2003, it was decided to dismantle this part of the plant. Demolition work began in February 2009. In October 2009, work on the plant had to be temporarily stopped by order of the French nuclear safety authority, as a total of 39 kg of plutonium dust was unexpectedly found in the glove boxes...

Nuclear power accidents by country#France

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Cadarache (France)

The Center de Cadarache is located on the so-called Durance Fault, a geological fracture zone where strong to devastating earthquakes have repeatedly occurred every 100 years, most recently in 1913. Most of the facilities in Cadarache are therefore classified by French seismologists as a radiation risk for viewed the region...

June 10, 1977 (INES Class.?) NPP Millstone, USA

A hydrogen explosion damaged three buildings and forced the shutdown of the Millstone-1 reactor.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Millstone

... On June 10, 1977, a hydrogen explosion occurred at Millstone-1; the reactor was shut down ...

What's wrong with Wikipedia?

The Wikipedia article "Millstone Nuclear Power Plant" contains no reference to the hydrogen explosion of June 10, 1977.

Wikipedia

List of nuclear power accidents by country

Millstone is the only nuclear power plant in the US state of Connecticut. It is situated on, and named after, a former quarry on the Atlantic Ocean's Niantic Bay in the City of Waterford. It consists of three reactors, one decommissioned boiling water reactor and two active pressurized water reactor units...

Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States

9. June

energy needs | CO2 emissions | Waste heat

Largest unused source of energy

"Waste heat can supply entire cities with electricity"

Waste heat is the world's largest untapped energy resource, say companies like Orcan Energy. But even if they want to, classic sources such as data centers often do not find direct buyers. Andreas Sichert is not surprised. Because waste heat is usually produced far away from residential areas, explains the boss of Orcan Energy in the "climate laboratory" of ntv. Another problem: The supply of waste heat in Germany is much larger than the annual heat demand. Sichert therefore advocates a different approach. Waste heat giants such as glassworks or cement works can produce their own electricity inexpensively on site from their waste heat and in this way reduce their energy requirements by up to 25 percent. "And because the electricity is generated exactly where you need it, you don't need a new network," says Sichert. "Since the CO2 emissions are also reduced, one operates profitable climate protection."

ntv.de: In Frankfurt, 1300 households will soon be heating with waste heat from a data center. The operators would like to emit even more heat, but cannot find any other buyers. How can that be when there is a dispute about the heat transition and the heating law at the same time and many people fear the expensive heat pump?

Andreas Secures: This is easy to explain. Waste heat is usually produced where there is no direct consumer either in terms of location or time. If we leave the data center and think of industrial companies such as steel works, cement works or glassworks, ...

... all of which have work processes that generate an incredible amount of heat?

Absolutely. Some material is created or formed. And the energy that is needed for this is not chemically bound in this material, but in most cases is lost unused in the form of waste heat. A glass melting furnace is heated with gas and runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 10 to 14 years. If you turned off the furnace and that molten glass got hard, you could throw the furnace away...

Climate protection | Last Generation | Robert Habeck

Evangelical Church Day:

Habeck: "Last generation" harms climate protection

At the Kirchentag, the Vice Chancellor discussed with the spokeswoman for the environmental activists, Carla Hinrichs. Shortly before, your fellow campaigners block Nuremberg's main train station.

According to Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the actions of the "Last Generation" group are damaging efforts to protect the climate. "This protest prevents a majority for climate protection and drives people away," said Habeck at the Evangelical Church Congress in Nuremberg. The actions are unspecific, hit everyone and thus "in truth no one". The protest fizzles out and makes people "just angry and angry".

Habeck discussed on a podium with the speaker of the "Last Generation" Carla Hinrichs. He is the first member of the government to speak publicly with a representative of the controversial organization.

[...] Carla Hinrichs responded to Habeck's criticism: "Since when does the government consider the protest against itself to be right or wrong?" Their movement has set itself the task of being a "fire alarm" like a high-rise building that is burning in the basement. The alarm was loud and annoying, but no one would say afterwards that it was wrong, said Hinrichs.

[...] Both sides received a lot of applause for their positions in the fully occupied hall on the exhibition grounds, which can accommodate around 4500 visitors. Hinrichs even received a standing ovation for her opening statement.

China | Cuba | United States | Taiwan

WSJ: China is building a spy base in Cuba

Electronic communications from US military and agencies are receivable in Cuba. After Russia, China is to get a large listening station, says the WSJ.

The People's Republic of China is paying billions of dollars to Cuba in order to be able to set up a large monitoring base there. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports, citing sources who have insight into top-secret US espionage findings. Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, describes the newspaper report as "not accurate", but does not deny it entirely.

[...] The island of Taiwan is as far away from China as Cuba is from the USA. In addition, the USA repeatedly conducts reconnaissance flights in the Formosa Strait between Taiwan and China, and US Navy ships also pass there - both to the annoyance of Beijing.

A large spy base in Cuba would be a strong signal from China that it wants to do the same as the Americans...

Warming | ground | Thermal energy

Underestimated heat storage underground

Calculations show that the thermal energy stored by the landmasses has increased significantly.

Climate change has many effects - the most well-known of which is global warming. 89 percent of the excess heat is stored in the oceans, the rest in ice and glaciers, the atmosphere and land masses. An international research team led by the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) has now examined the amount of heat stored on land (including inland waters) and shown its distribution. Calculations published in the journal Earth System Dynamics show that in 2020 storage there was more than 20 times what it was in 1960, with the largest increase occurring underground...

June 09, 1985 (INES 4) NPP Davis Besse, USA

In June 1985, a potentially catastrophic 12-minute loss of coolant shut down the plant for more than a year. The NRC described the accident as the worst since Three Mile Island.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

Wikipedia

Nuclear power plant_Davis_Besse#Incidents

On June 9, 1985, when the cooling system of the 'Kkw Davis Besse 1' was commissioned, there was a malfunction in a pump which, due to incorrect operation by an operator, was running at too high a speed. To counteract this, the delivery rate was throttled. Shortly thereafter, there was overpressure at another pump. The operators turned off the pump. However, this stopped the circulation of the coolant flow. To counteract this, an operator activated the emergency feedwater pumps. The event was first classified as “extraordinary”; later, the incident was investigated more closely and it was found that a near meltdown (melting of the reactor core) had occurred. According to estimates by the IAEA, the incident was to be rated at least INES 4, i.e. "accident".

Nuclear power accidents by country#United_States

Sierra Club

DAVIS BESSE NUCLEAR REACTOR

The Davis-Besse nuclear reactor is located on Lake Erie in Oak Harbor, Ohio, 20 miles east of Toledo. It is a commercial nuclear power plant with an output of 894 megawatts. In 2015, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted FirstEnergy a license extension to operate Davis-Besse 20 years beyond its design lifespan of 40 years. The generation of high-level radioactive waste at Davis-Besse will increase by approximately 30 tons per year.

ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS: Davis-Besse has experienced accidents and violations since before it was put into operation.

In 1972, strong winds caused the lake's water to flood the site for a month. Recurrence during operation of the reactor could have catastrophic consequences.

Six of the 34 "major accidents" in the United States occurred at Davis-Besse.

In October 1977, a pilot operated pressure relief valve opened in an incident nearly identical to the cause of the 1979 Three Mile Island (TMI) meltdown. Had the NRC then asked all similar pressurized water reactors to fix this problem, the TMI incident could have been avoided.

The direct impact of a tornado in 1998 resulted in the total loss of external power, destroying the alarm, communications and emergency systems. A meltdown threatened...

Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Davis-Besse_(USA)

8. June

Brazil | Amazon | rainforest deforestation

Threatened rainforest in Brazil:

deforestation is declining

In the first five months of the new left-wing government, the Amazon region has probably fared better. President Lula wants to save the rainforest.

BERLIN taz | He was aware of the size of the task, said Brazil's President Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva in the capital Brasília. But he and his government would do whatever it takes to end illegal logging in the country by 2030. Lula presented a plan to protect the rainforest at the beginning of the week alongside his Environment Minister Marina Silva. "I am committed to resuming Brazil's global leadership in mitigating climate change and controlling deforestation."

The challenges facing the government are even more than great. Because the tenure of the ultra-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro had devastating effects on the Amazon region. Bolsonaro ousted environmental protection and indigenous authorities and formally called on Brazilians to illegally appropriate land in Amazonia. The consequence: Thousands of gold diggers, lumberjacks and cattle farmers established themselves in the region and Brazil kept setting new records in illegal deforestation.

In fact, according to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which analyzes satellite data, deforestation has already fallen by a third in the first five months of Lula's tenure. However: Whether there is a direct connection to the actions of the government has not been proven ...

Switzerland | CO2 emissions | CCS

CCS in the cement industry

Swiss carbon dioxide is shipped to Iceland

It sounds like a megalomaniac plan: Swiss scientists want to dispose of CO2 emissions from the small country in Iceland - and have already started to do so.

[...] The Federal Council in Switzerland decided in 2019 that the country should become climate neutral by 2050, similar to the European Union. But in order to achieve this, emissions must also be prevented or offset in areas for which there are currently no good alternatives.

This applies, for example, to six cement works in Switzerland. These not only emit carbon dioxide due to the use of fossil fuels, but also due to the chemical conversion processes in the production of cement clinker.

For cement plants and other concentrated emission sources, one option is to capture the CO2 emissions and then store them underground. Such methods are known as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). However, there are currently no geological CO2 storage facilities in Switzerland, and it is also not foreseeable that these will be ready in the near future.

CO2 turns to stone

The Icelandic company Carbfix has developed a method in which carbon dioxide dissolved in water is pressed into basalt rock. The CO2 reacts chemically with the rock. This distinguishes the method from other CCS projects in which the carbon dioxide remains in gaseous form underground - the risk of CO2 escaping again can be practically ruled out ...

China fined food imports from contaminated areas | Tritium water from Fukushima

Selling food from radioactive regions in Japan will be punished

From the beginning of the year, food from 10 Japanese prefectures can no longer be sold in China because the risk of it being radioactive is too great. A department store in southern China's Guangdong is now having to pay a fine.

A Guangdong-based department store has been fined 10.000 yuan ($1.400) for selling snacks made in radiation-damaged regions of Japan, from which imports are banned.

[...] According to the Chinese Food Safety Law, the production and sale of food in China for certain purposes, such as: B. to prevent illness, are expressly prohibited.

As Japan's plan to dispose of the nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima draws closer, more Chinese netizens are voicing concerns about the safety of not only seafood but other Japanese foods as well. Some people have even begun to explain to their fellow human beings certain methods of verifying that a particular Japanese food comes from radiation-contaminated regions.

Japan TEPCO | cesium in fish

Cesium levels in fish from near Fukushima 180 times the limit

The cesium content of a fish caught near Fukushima is 180 times the limit, according to a report.

This was reported by the Japanese news agency Kyodo on Wednesday, citing information from the Japanese electricity supplier Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

According to this, a value of 18.000 becquerels was measured in a rock perch caught near the damaged power plant in May.

Levels up to 100 becquerels are considered safe by the Japanese government...

United States | Canada | Forest fires | air pollution

New York and Washington in the smoke

Warning levels declared for more than a hundred million people

Smoke from wildfires in Canada sweeps across the United States. New York in particular is badly affected, the red alert applies. Pictures of the enshrouded metropolis go around the world.

Because of the severe wildfires in Canada, more than 100 million people in the US are affected by increased air quality health alert levels. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told the AFP news agency that the warnings affect most of the northeastern United States, extending west to Chicago and south to Atlanta. The warning level orange or higher applies to those affected.

Orange warning level corresponds to air pollution that could affect the health of sensitive population groups, i.e. it could harm the elderly or children in particular. Many major cities including New York and Washington were hit by a higher, red alert on Wednesday, with air quality considered unhealthy even for the general population...

June 08, 1970 (INES 4 NAMS 3,6) Nuclear factory LLNL, USA

About 222 Tbq were released in this accident, the wind blew the cloud mainly in a south-easterly direction. Radiation levels were measured 200 miles away.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

Watching out for the ecology of Livermore

Livermore Eco Watchdogs

Historical Doses To The Public from Routine and Accidental Releases of Tritium

Estimates from 1953 to 2005 were based on Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory 29.300 TBq tritium released into the atmosphere...

Tritium and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Two of the three largest tritium accidents I have ever seen documented occurred here at Livermore Lab's main site. In 1965 and 1970, the Livermore Lab released approximately 650.000 curies (23.700 TBq) of tritium into the air from the stacks of the tritium facility (Building 331). Note: One curie corresponds to 37 billion radioactive decay processes per second, in becquerels 37 GBq.

The largest release in LLNL history occurred on January 20, 1965 and amounted to 259 TBq.

The second highest dose resulted from the release of 222 TBq on June 8, 1970.

After the 1965 accident, not much data is available on wind patterns, precipitation, etc., but after the 1970 accident, Livermore Lab scientists found elevated tritium levels that they linked to the 1970 accident, as far south as Fresno, in southeast about 200 miles away.

Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Unfortunately, there is no information about these incidents in the German Wikipedia.

Wikipedia de

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

In the English Wikipedia only the usual court reports copied from advertising brochures.

Wikipedia en

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Livermore_National_Laboratory#Public_protests

Public protests

The Livermore Action Group organized numerous mass protests against the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's production of nuclear weapons from 1981 to 1984... On June 22, 1982, more than 1.300 anti-nuclear weapons protesters were arrested in a non-violent demonstration. More recently, there is an annual protest against nuclear weapons research in Lawrence Livermore. In August 2003, 1.000 people protested at Livermore Labs against "new generation nuclear warheads". During the 2007 protests, 64 people were arrested. In March 2008, more than 80 people were arrested while protesting outside the gates.

On July 27, 2021, the Society of Professionals, Scientists, and Engineers - University of Professional & Technical Employees Local 11, CWA Local 9119 went on a three-day strike over unfair labor practices.

Translated with https://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

7. June

Climate protection, species protection or Armaments? MiC has won!

Climate and species protection: Why the financial competition is devastating

Species and climate protection should not hinder each other, it was said a year ago. Important compensation programs are now being cut. Instead, more money goes into pointless military projects.

Species protection and wind energy would be allies and no longer enemies, promised Climate Minister Robert Habeck when Environment Minister Steffi Lemke initiated a national species aid program worth millions at the beginning of her term in office. In the coalition agreement, the parties pledged to push the energy transition "without reducing ecological protection standards".

The compromise was fewer hurdles for renewable energies, but more species protection elsewhere. By changing the Federal Nature Conservation Act, the Alliance Green environment minister cleared numerous obstacles to the expansion of wind power.

[...] Inflated military budget eats up billions

While climate and nature conservationists are arguing about a few million, billions are flowing into military projects: the "Future Combat Air System" fighter jet system, which Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron launched in 100, is said to cost 2019 billion euros .

In an increasingly uncertain world, we have to take precautions together, explains the President of the EU Commission. The "air combat system of the future", which is to replace the Tornado fighter jets and the Eurofighter, which is prone to breakdowns, as well as the Rafale machines of the French Air Force, is expected to provide even more military security from 2040.

The package announced a year ago for the Bundeswehr is also worth 100 billion euros. Far too little, military experts whine ...

Propaganda | AfD | Extreme right | fascist | populi

Shift to the right in Germany:

AfD voters are not a flock of sheep

With 18 percent, the AfD reached a record poll high in Germany. But instead of distancing themselves, the other parties are getting closer thematically.

[...] It is now the others' fault again, the "weak and constantly arguing government," said Friedrich Merz. His party, on the other hand, has “nothing to do” with the AfD. As if he had never spoken of “little Pashas”, as if the CDU had not wanted to ask for first names, as if the Bautzen district administrator had not approved an AfD application, as if right-wing extremism was not regularly equated with left-wing extremism, as if people were not demanding more flags and national anthems, as if you had nothing to do with a former chancellor who didn't go to Mölln or Solingen.

"We have nothing to do with these people," is easily asserted. But this country has everything to do with these people. The German Nazi problem, the continuing openness to the law, is home-made here, and not just by conservatives. The grand coalition has set up a home ministry, the Greens have blocked the disclosure of the NSU files, an FDP member has had himself elected prime minister in Thuringia with AfD votes. And all parties are responsible for growing social inequality...

Brazil indigenous population

Supreme Court decides

Indigenous rights under fire in Brazil

The conservative majority in the Brazilian parliament wants to massively restrict the rights of the indigenous population so that the agro-industry can more easily expand their cultivation areas. A fundamental decision will be made today.

When last year's elections in Brazil marked a political turning point, hope was high. After the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, who gained an international reputation as a right-wing populist forest destroyer, Lula da Silva, longtime left-wing president and globally recognized advocate for forest protection, was re-elected.

Even if Lula only narrowly won the elections and the divisions in the country are large, the first successes have been achieved. He created a ministry for indigenous peoples, announced an international forest protection summit and brought the 2025 world climate conference to Belém in the northern Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

But Lula's tenure is already being shaken by a series of political credibility crises. Recent decisions have weakened ministries important for environmental protection...

industrialized countries | Greenhouse effect | climate compensation

Climate Change: We owe the Global South $170 trillion

Researchers quantify country-specific compensation for exceeding the CO2 budget

Climate compensation quantified: In order to pay off their climate debts, the industrialized countries would have to pay the countries of the Global South around 170 trillion US dollars in compensation, as a study shows. This serves as compensation for the fact that rich countries have more than tripled their share of the global carbon budget. Germany exceeds its budget share by a factor of 2 and would actually have to give over 2,8 US dollars per capita to the poorer countries in the course of climate justice.

Man-made climate change is anything but fair or just: while the industrialized countries, with their enormous CO2 emissions, bear the main culprit for the climate crisis, the poorer countries of the Global South are the main sufferers. They have historically contributed little to the anthropogenic greenhouse effect, but feel the effects most severely in the form of extreme weather, heat and flooding...

China | Photovoltaics | desert

Trip to China: Climate innovation beats fossil inertia in Europe

I was impressed by my trip to China to the world's largest photovoltaic trade fair in Shanghai. The ecological technology pushes are enormous. If nothing happens, German companies threaten to sink into insignificance.

Both the growth and the innovative power of Chinese production capacities, not only for photovoltaics (PV), but also for batteries, e-mobility, heat pumps, electrolysers and other emission-free technologies, are still breathtaking - starting from a high level. The greening activities in the big cities and even deserts are also impressive.

[...] Desert greening with huge PV open space systems

The most exciting was my trip to Baotou and Ordos, two cities with a good two million inhabitants each on the Yellow River in the Gobi desert, Inner Mongolia. There I visited SPIC's 2,2 GW PV plant, which has a Guinness Book record...

Climate protection | CO2 | industrial emissions

Dirty Thirty: The 30 most climate-damaging industries in Germany

New WWF report analyzes the 30 most CO2-intensive industrial plants in Germany / Focus is on iron and steel production / Traffic light must present comprehensive industrial strategy.

The thirty most CO2-intensive industrial plants in Germany caused 58 million tons of CO2 emissions last year. This is shown by a new report by the Öko-Institut on behalf of WWF Germany, which analyzes industrial emissions from emissions trading systems (ETS). In 2022, the "Dirty Thirty" accounted for around a third of the emissions from the industrial sector defined in the Climate Protection Act and eight percent of Germany's total greenhouse gas emissions.

“The industrial sector is a heavyweight when it comes to CO2 emissions and therefore also when it comes to climate protection. Transforming it is one of the most important tasks for politics and business. This is the only way we can protect the climate and jobs in equal measure. Unfortunately, this task has not yet been structurally addressed. The traffic light must now deliver what it promised: a comprehensive strategy for climate protection in industry that creates planning and investment security so that not only the 'dirty thirty', but the entire German industry converts processes and use of raw materials more quickly and makes a contribution to climate protection achieves," says Viviane Raddatz, climate chief at WWF Germany ...

6. June

Climate change | solar punk movement | Future

Dealing with climate change:

Suddenly longing for the future

Due to the climate crisis, the future seemed like a black hole to our 26-year-old author. Then she discovered the solarpunk movement.

There are moments that are decisive for our thinking. For my future thinking there were two of them. The first was in 2019 when I saw a video of Greta Thunberg's speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos: "I want you to panic." Zack. My panic was there and with it another feeling: a lack of prospects.

Because climate change can no longer be prevented, it is already here. Our political systems are too slow to stop him. Our social order is likely to collapse under these conditions.

[...] The basis of every solarpunk world is overcoming the ecological crisis: humanity manages to live in harmony with nature. The solar punk movement sees itself as a community in which everyone works towards such a future.

What is important for the movement is that technologies are not ignored or even seen as harmful, but rather seen as an opportunity to make life easier. Technology and nature are not understood as a contradiction, but complement each other.

[...] Being a solar punk is not just about counteracting the climate crisis, but also about building resilience, acquiring skills such as sewing, mending and crafts: skills that can become vital to survival in the event of a disaster. It's about forming bands against injustice, putting pressure on politicians and demanding sustainable business in the workplace. Not all of these are new ideas, but Solarpunk bundles them into a movement with a common goal.

I am no longer just an individual struggling alone. I'm part of a movement. That feels good. I'm solar punk...

Roger Waters a Anti-Semite?

Roger Waters and the Alliance of the Wicked

A report of Waters' performance in the Frankfurt exhibition hall - or Act V: Final Countdown.

On May 28, 2023, the Roger Waters concert was sold out and the exhibition hall was filled to capacity. A few hundred meters away, an "alliance against anti-Semitism" warned of "one of the most widespread anti-Semites in the world". There were perhaps three or four hundred, aware of the danger, who gathered there.

Did almost 10.000 die-hard anti-Semites, anti-Semitic aficionados, come together in the exhibition hall?

[...] Of course she knows, she can know, that Roger Waters did not glorify the Nazi era, but has taken a stand against fascism and every form of oppression in his concerts for decades. Her claim is so willfully stupid that one should ask her whether she also considers Charly Chaplin to be an anti-Semite who used Nazi symbolism when it came to performing the “Great Dictator.”

[...] As unpleasant and hypocritical as this “alliance against anti-Semitism” is: it has nothing to do with anti-Semitism, but with a basic reactionary attitude, which includes the methods of delegitimization (of the other party), of double standards (their own wars are not wars of aggression, but “humanitarian interventions”) and the demonization of the opponent (“one of the most widespread anti-Semites in the world”) are the standard tools.

The reference to the fact that a comparison between Anne Frank and a killed Palestinian girl is proof of the "degradation of the victims" can and should serve emotions, i.e. nip any dispute in the bud, as it did with German fascism and the Nazi dictatorship came, i.e. what degree of degradation is appropriate to be able to “keep up” with Anne Frank.

Otherwise, the guiding principle is: The Holocaust belongs to us, and the memory of Sophie Scholl even more so...

Mercosur | Free Trade Agreements

EU and Mercosur – that is pure exploitation!

The planned free trade agreement is destroying livelihoods

Mercosur is an international economic organization in Latin America. The name of this single market is the abbreviation for the Mercado Común del Sur (Southern Common Market). In July 2023, the government representatives of the Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay will meet with those of the EU in Madrid. The largest free trade agreement in the world is to be concluded here. It's about one-sided postcolonial dependencies and exploitative relationships. In addition, it is also about the extent to which the exact opposite is caused by the limitation of the climate catastrophe that many countries are striving for through alleged decarbonization measures.

Since 2019 there have been considerable protests against the desired agreement between the Mercosur countries and the EU. In 2021, an alliance of 450 South American and European organizations called for the planned free trade agreement to be stopped. On April 17, 2023, the international day of peasant resistance, the working group for rural agriculture (AbL), FIAN and other organizations demonstrated in front of the Ministry of Economics in Berlin against the planned EU-Mercosur agreement ...

CO2 storage | trees | mushrooms | Carbon sink

Root mushrooms as CO2 absorbers

Mycorrhizal fungi absorb over a third of the carbon emitted worldwide

Underground CO2 stores: The mycorrhizal fungi linked to plant roots are buffers in the climate system that have been underestimated to date. Because they bind enough carbon to offset a good third of our global CO2 emissions, as researchers have determined. According to this, the carbon absorption of the root fungi corresponds to around 13,12 billion tons of CO2 equivalents per year - that is more than China's total annual CO2 emissions. The underground fungal networks get their carbon from the plant roots with which they live in symbiosis.

A vast subterranean network of mycorrhizal fungi stretches beneath our feet. All over the planet - under meadows, forests, roads and houses - the mycelium of these fungi sprout in close symbiosis with the roots of land plants. The deal: the fungi provide mineral nutrients, the plants the carbon. Since an estimated 70 to 90 percent of terrestrial plants enter into such fungal symbioses, scientists have long suspected that a significant amount of carbon must get into the soil via the fungi. But how much exactly was not clear until now...

June 06, 2008 (INES 1 ?) NPP Phillipsburg, DEU

Wikipedia

list of events

According to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, a pressure drop in the containment of Unit I that exceeded the permissible values was determined on the night of Friday, June 6, 2008. The vessel, which encloses important parts of the reactor, has a slight overpressure of 20 millibars during normal operation. According to the ministry, the pressure drop determined was 1 millibar per hour and was due to a leak. The leak occurred when the system was started up after the inspection and immediately after the tank was flooded with nitrogen...

Philippsburg nuclear power plant breakdowns and incidents

Nuclear power accidents by country#Germany

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Philippsburg (Baden-Wuerttemberg)

... Geologists have been pointing out for many years that the reactors in the Rheingraben, Neckarwestheim, Philippsburg and Biblis are only designed for earthquakes measuring 4,5 to 5,5 on the Richter scale. In the Rheingraben, however, strengths of 1356 to 6,5 were already reached in 6,7, and 1775 in 76/6,1. Such earthquakes could have happened again at any time.

Several incidents from 2001 deserve special mention. Philippsburg II was started up in August 2001 with a defective emergency cooling system. Although the defect was discovered two weeks later, the reactor continued to operate unlawfully. It was later determined that the emergency cooling system had not been sufficiently filled for years. It should be added that the operator did not report this incident from 2001 to the supervisory authority ...

5. June

Snowden revelations, intelligence services have the reporting ended

10 years of Snowden leaks: revelations no longer desired

The journalistic evaluation of the Snowden files has dried up after government pressure

Marking the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the Snowden revelations in 2018, senior US intelligence official Bill Evanina told the AP news agency that since only 2010 percent of the stolen files have been made public, "this matter won't end any time soon." But then she did. John Goetz sees "a tiredness with the Snowden issue" as the reason for this. The award-winning investigative journalist of the NDR regrets this, because even today important aspects are still contained in the many documents of the whistleblower. Goetz worked with Wikileaks on the Spiegel in 2011 and 2013. In XNUMX he evaluated Snowden files for investigative articles in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. At NDR, where he is now employed, he has made documentaries on these subjects.

But the end of Snowden reporting cannot be explained by the fact that we are tired of the topic alone. One reason for this is probably the state pressure on the media and their subsequent collapse. This became clear and public knowledge in the case of the British newspaper »Guardian«. On July 20, 2013, one of the most bizarre events in recent newspaper history took place at their headquarters: under the supervision of agents from the British secret service GCHQ, employees of the "Guardian" destroyed storage media containing Snowden's material...

Nature Conservation | EU Parliament | EVP

EU law to save nature

"Fake News" against nature conservation

One of the cornerstones of the European Green Deal, the Nature Restoration Act, is under fire in the European Parliament. With false information, the conservative EPP group is creating a mood against the project.

The planned regulation for the restoration of nature is a thorn in the side of conservative politicians. Last Wednesday, MEPs from the Christian Democratic EPP Group left the negotiations in the European Parliament's Environment Committee. The environmental policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, Peter Liese, warned of additional nature conservation requirements for farmers and foresters.

The parliamentary group has been stirring up sentiment against the regulation for a long time and does not shy away from crude claims. The law, it is said, would weaken rural areas.

The party followed suit on social networks and spread false information: Villages had to give way due to renaturation measures and farmers were forced to give up ten percent of their farmland.

Only: Such provisions are nowhere to be found in the draft law ...

exports of the German economy

foreign trade

German exports rise unexpectedly

Germany's exporters got off to a robust start in the second quarter. Compared with April, exports increased by 1,2 percent. However, economists are expecting less impetus from China and the USA.

German exports rose surprisingly at the start of the second quarter. In April they climbed by 1,2 percent compared to the previous month to 130,4 billion euros, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Monday.

[...] Exports to EU countries rose in April by 4,5 percent compared to the previous month to 71,4 billion euros. The USA remained the number one buyer country: goods worth 13,1 billion euros were sold there, an increase of 4,7 percent. Exports to China grew by 10,1 percent to 8,5 billion euros, while those to Great Britain fell by 5,2 percent to 6,1 billion euros...

space solar | microwave | Caltech

Researchers are beaming solar energy from space to Earth for the first time

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have succeeded for the first time in wirelessly transferring energy from solar cells in space to Earth. In the future, people want to generate electricity in space on a large scale.

Caltech researchers announced in a press release that, for the first time in human history, solar energy has been transmitted from one satellite to another and to Earth in the form of microwaves.

[...] If science succeeds in further refining this system, expanding it and making it profitable, it could go a long way towards improving the electricity supply on Earth. “There will be no need for any energy infrastructure on Earth to receive this energy,” Hajimiri said. “This means we can also send energy to remote places or those devastated by natural disasters or war.”

Denmark | Baltic wind | offshore cooperation

Bornholm Energy Island: Germany and Denmark commit themselves

Offshore wind power is to be expanded significantly in the North and Baltic Seas; as well as the network infrastructure. The Bornholm energy island should be a pioneer.

Germany and Denmark have signed an intergovernmental agreement that aims to develop cross-border energy production on Bornholm. Germany and the countries bordering the North Sea and Baltic Sea are planning to set up several so-called energy islands and thus ensure better power supply from renewable energies and grid stability.

With the signing, Germany and Denmark are getting closer to their goal of installing offshore wind turbines with at least 2030 gigawatts (GW) of capacity off Bornholm by the early 3s and distributing the electricity yield to both countries. Among other things, a 470-kilometer cable will be laid from Germany to the Danish island...

heat transition | heating law | heat plan

heat transition

Yes, just make a plan

Wrong order: according to the heating law, the federal government wants to tackle heat planning

It should be buzzing in Germany. The unmistakable sound of a heat pump should be heard in as many front gardens as possible. This is what the heating law wants, which the government representatives of the Greens and SPD want to introduce to the Bundestag before the summer break. The traffic light colleagues from the FDP justify their resistance to this, e.g. with unclear conditions. Some of their concerns are valid.

[...] As expected, the real estate lobby also shoots sideways. “For the owners of single-family homes and small landlords,” the planned data query is “hardly manageable,” said Carolin Hegenbarth, federal managing director of the German Real Estate Association. She also pointed out that with the Heating Act, the federal government was taking the second step before the first: "Property owners need heat planning as a guide before they decide which heat supply technology to choose." ...

4. June

Plastic waste | reduce plastics | plastic deal

Negotiations on the plastic agreement:

Oil countries rely on the right of veto

430 million tons of plastic are produced every year, much of it ends up in the environment. A global agreement is supposed to change that.

PARIS taz | The first draft of an international agreement to reduce plastic waste should be available by November. The second of five rounds of negotiations under the auspices of the United Nations ended late on Friday with at least a minimal compromise.

For almost a week, around a thousand delegates from 175 countries argued with numerous lobbyists and NGOs in Paris. The international secretariat of the conference, chaired by the Peruvian Gustavo Medra-Cuadra, is to draw up the so-called Zero Draft for the global agreement for the next conference in Kenya.

The task is likely to be delicate, because a small group of countries, led by China, India and Saudi Arabia, want everything possible for economic reasons - except that less plastics are produced from petroleum in the future. On the other hand stands the so-called High Ambition Coalition, to which all industrialized countries, except the USA, and many developing countries belong...

Climate protection | change | Communication | Transformation

Climate protection in Germany

In the land of two speeds

Most Germans are in favor of more climate protection. The only question is how - and how quickly. For some, the transformation is not going fast enough, others feel overwhelmed by the planned political measures.

If the polls had their way, climate protection would not be a problem in Germany. According to ARD DeutschlandTrend, Germans see environmental protection and climate change as the most important problem to be tackled.

Nevertheless, some of the measures taken by the government in Berlin meet with bitter resistance as soon as they become concrete: power lines? Preferably underground, please! electric mobility? But only if there are still cars with a tank! And: The Building Energy Act? Best not at all...

Media makes politics | ARD daily topics

Muzzle: Amazing ARD censorship in the energy transition

The daily issues are cooking up a poll for political reasons. To this day, the public still doesn't find out what the Germans really want. Why the propaganda against climate protection is not new and fatal.

Last year, on August 4th, the ARD program Tagesthemen reported on survey results on the Germany trend. The survey was conducted amid energy sanctions against Russia, the fossil fuel crisis in Europe and growing fears of gas shortages in the wake of the Ukraine war.

In the survey by the opinion research institute Infratest dimap, commissioned by the daily topics and the newspaper Die Welt, the following questions were asked:

Various measures are being discussed in connection with the Ukraine war and its economic and energy policy consequences for Germany. Please indicate whether the following measures are right or wrong from your point of view.

Four options were given to choose from. The results of the survey looked like this:

Faster expansion of wind energy: right 81 percent, wrong 15 percent
Increased use of coal power: true 61 percent, false 33 percent
Temporary speed limit on motorways: right 61 percent, wrong 35 percent
Promotion of so-called fracking gas in Germany: right 27 percent, wrong 56 percent.

However, the measure that received by far the most approval in the study (81 percent) was ignored in the reporting. She did not appear in the chart, nor was she mentioned in the moderation. That would be a bit like simply omitting the party with the most support from the Sunday poll...

June 04, 2008 (INES 0 ?) NPP Krsko, SVN

Regulators shut down the Krsko nuclear power plant after the primary cooling system failed and coolant leaked into the reactor containment.

Nuclear Power Accidents.pdf

Wikipedia

Nuclear power plant Krško#incidents

On June 4, 2008 at 15, a loss-of-coolant accident occurred. Coolant had escaped in the main cooling system (primary circuit) and the reactor output was throttled as a result. The reactor was shut down and completely shut down at 07:20 to be able to investigate the cause of the problem...

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Krško (Slovenia)#Risks and Incidents

There were already problems with the delivery in 1981: when the 322-ton steam generator was being transported from Rijeka to Krško, it crashed into the motorway. In the first eight years, operations at the $70 billion facility were halted XNUMX times. The reactor had to be improved in terms of safety ...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Current news+

media and politics | Propaganda | Fake News | WiP

Politics with poison, hate speech and propaganda

The distortion of reports and facts as well as the reinterpretation of words, images and symbols is part of the daily exercises of right-wing propagandists, "Fake news" and false flag media attacks are the order of the day. Anything that people hear or read must actually be researched and checked several times, dno one has time for that. The writers affected by this form of disinformation wear themselves out typing counter-statements and are thus kept from their actual work.

Inefficient, extremely expensive and dangerous nuclear energy is presented as an important contribution to environmental and climate protection. The economic and medical benefits of the nuclear industry are emphasized and greatly exaggerated. The dangers, on the other hand, are played down and even completely denied by some nuclear fanatics or turned into the opposite. In reality, however, it is a question of being able to continue to tap into millions undisturbed and of letting electricity customers pay for the plutonium for the nuclear weapons of the all-powerful military. In turn, the most powerful toxins the world has ever known are being produced, and occasionally accidentally released.

How opinion making works:

The message:

Washington subsidized a new production plant of the German chemical company Evonik with 150 of a total of 220 million dollars.

The spin:

The industry and its lobbyists complain in sound and vision on all channels about rising energy prices, lousy economic policy, lack of subsidies and unrealistically expensive environmental regulations imposed by the authorities. These factors alone are responsible for the inevitable departure of industry from the country.

The fact is:

Industry has been wasting energy, knowingly polluting the air, water and earth with its products for decades and hiding it as long and as well as possible. The 20.000 different per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds (PFAS) are just one of many suspected hazardous product groups. The cost of transforming to a more sustainable energy supply and cleaning up water, soil and air increases the longer we wait.

In Germany, in the USA and in the rest of the world, people pay for environmental damage with their money and/or their health.

But who cares about all that? At most a few outsiders, doubters, troublemakers and spoilsports! No problem, there are proven ways and means to neutralize such people with targeted hate speech and propaganda.

In a first step, critics and potential victims are turned into malicious perpetrators by distorting facts and reinterpreting words and images. In a second step, these people, who can now be identified as criminals, are either denounced as fools, enemies of the people or criminal conspirators until they no longer appear credible or can be sentenced like ordinary criminals.

Recent examples:

The linguist Noam Chomsky the words are twisted in his mouth so that he sounds like a stupid Putin fanboy.
The climate demonstrators are being criminalized and condemned because they don't want to quietly let their future be burned up and they also dare to stick themselves in the way of sacred private transport.
The journalist Julian Assange is in prison for revealing the truth about American war crimes.

This has always worked well in the past, and it seems to be going in a similar direction today, if we let it.

Religious and political fanatics around the world denounce, harass and kill dissenters in the name of their Lord or some other crude idea. The madness is galloping around the globe again and the human flayers have adapted their methods just a little bit to the spirit of the times. In the former colonies, for example, people are now allowed to exploit themselves and each other in a completely self-determined manner.

Meanwhile, tax dodger Don Trumpl poses in front of the cameras with a raised, clenched fist, reinterpreting the symbol of the freedom struggle. He got himself elected to the White House in 2016 with a lot of money from billionaire Robert Mercer (Cambrigde Analytica) and since then has only ranted about how he is a poor victim and how his election victory was stolen from him four years ago. lIt's a big smear theatre and every time this horror clown opens his mouth, a huge press echo resounds and the bullshit gets a hundredfold echo. In Germany, only Kini Jödler plays with the media with similar virtuosity.

All this reminds me very much of times long ago when our ancestors were still young and inexperienced. Whenever I heard these old stories as a young lad, I was glad that such dark times were over. Today it feels like a premonition of danger lurking just around the next corner.

To be continued ...


Current news+	Background knowledge

Background knowledge

The map of the nuclear world

The winner writes history...

The internal search for

Propaganda | Fake News

brought the following results, among others:

May 17, 2023 - Kretschmann on the discussion about heat pumps: "No installation obligation planned"

February 16, 2023 - Cambridge Analytica and the Israeli hackers

October 2, 2022 - The PR is a continuation of the war by peaceful means

YouTube

Keyword search: propaganda

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Propaganda

Videos:

contemporary witness portal from August 26, 2011 - 3:06

1931: The Nazi propaganda

NZZ from June 20, 2018 - 3:47

Populism: A Danger to Democracy?

Terra X History from March 4, 2021 - 12:49 p.m

How the Nazi era changed the media

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

Ecosia

This search engine is planting trees!

Keyword search: propaganda

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

Wikipedia

Propaganda

Propaganda (from Latin propagare, "spread out", "spread out", "disseminate"), in its modern meaning, denotes purposeful attempts to shape political opinions or public perceptions, manipulate knowledge and direct behavior in a direction desired by the propagandist or ruler steer. Not presenting the different sides of a topic and mixing information and opinion characterize the propaganda techniques. This is in contrast to pluralistic and critical perspectives, which are shaped by different experiences, observations and evaluations and rational discourse...

BpB - Federal Agency for Civic Education

war in the media

What are images of war for us? Document, proof, information, entertainment or targeted propaganda? Anyone who perceives depictions of war – regardless of whether they are images from news broadcasts, films or computer games – has to understand, interpret and classify them. The same image, the same sequence, seen in a different context, with different prior knowledge or integrated into a different dramaturgy, can inform, unsettle or downplay, but also manipulate.

Media concentration and media diversity

Media diversity is one of the most important factors for the media to fulfill their task of forming opinions. However, it is potentially restricted by economic, content-related and editorial-internal circumstances.

In all modern democracies there are special regulations that are intended to ensure sufficient "media diversity", because this is seen as an indispensable prerequisite for forming a will that takes the interests of the entire population into account and for the cohesion of a pluralistic society based on individual freedom rights.

Media companies play the central role as producers and distributors of media content, at least up to now: On the one hand, through their journalistic information offers, they decide whether all citizens are continuously informed about the behavior of the relevant individual political actors and interest groups and whether they are informed at elections and be able to correctly assess the consequences of the alternative political programs through sufficient background information. On the other hand, our values are decisively shaped by the other editorially designed media content, which is usually referred to as educational, cultural or entertainment offers...

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Newsletter XXII 2023 - May 28th to June 3rd

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