Newsletter XLVI 2023

12. to 18. November

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The PDF file "Nuclear Power Accidents" contains a number of other incidents from various areas of the nuclear industry. Some of the incidents were never published through official channels, so this information could only be made available to the public in a roundabout way. The list of incidents in the PDF file is therefore not 100 % identical with "INES and the disturbances in nuclear facilities", but represents an addition...

4 November 2004 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Balakovo, RUS

11 November 1983 (INES 3) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

16 November 2001 (INES ? Class.?) High Flux Reactor, Petten, NLD

19 November 2003 (INES 2 Class.?) Nuclear factory La Hague, FRA

19 November 1975 (INES ? Class.?) NPP Gundremmingen, GER

20 November 1959 (INES 4) Nuclear factory Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

22 November 2002 (INES 2) NPP Tihange, BEL

28 November 2007 (INES 2) NPP Asco, ESP

29 November 1970 (INES 3 | NAMS 2,5) Nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR

29 November 1955 (INES 4) Research reactor EBR-I, NTRS Idaho, USA

30 November 1975 (INES 5) NPP Sosnovy Bor, Leningrad, USSR

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

18. November

EU Commission | Glyphosate | Pesticide

Glyphosate: Scandalous re-approval by the EU Commission

Without support from member states – criminal neglect of the EU precautionary principle!

Yesterday the appeal committee of the member states voted on the re-approval of glyphosate. Although this second vote also turned into a vote of no confidence against the EU authorities' clean bill of health, the EU Commission announced on the same day that it would single-handedly approve the controversial plant poison despite a lack of support from the member states.

“The fact that the EU Commission wants to single-handedly approve the plant poison for another 10 years despite a lack of support from the member states and despite the overwhelming burden of proof of the dangers posed by glyphosate does not help to strengthen trust in the European institutions,” says Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, GLOBAL 2000 biochemist: “It is particularly explosive that worrying initial data from the first independent animal cancer study with glyphosate were presented just a few days ago and the commission did not even wait for them to be examined by the authorities.”...

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United States | Africa | Terror

The Pentagon declares its war on terror in Africa a failure

America's eternal wars have led to a 75.000% increase in terrorist attacks.

America's global war on terror has had its share of stalemates, disasters and defeats. In more than 20 years of armed interventions, the United States has watched its efforts fail spectacularly from Iraq in 2014 to Afghanistan in 2021. However, the greatest failure of their “forever wars” may lie not in the Middle East but in Africa.

“Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. “It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach is found, stopped and defeated,” President George W. Bush told the American people immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001, emphatically pointing out that these militants “reach vast regions.” had their sights set on Africa.

To strengthen this front, the United States began a decades-long effort to provide extensive security assistance, train many thousands of African military officers, establish dozens of outposts, send its own commandos for all sorts of missions, create proxy forces, launch drone strikes, and even direct ones to conduct ground battles against militants in Africa. Most Americans, including members of Congress, are unaware of the extent of these operations. As a result, few realize how dramatically America's shadow war has failed there.

The bare numbers alone make clear the extent of the catastrophe. When the United States began its Forever Wars in 2002 and 2003, the State Department counted only nine total terrorist attacks in Africa. According to the Pentagon, militant Islamist groups have already carried out 6756 attacks on this continent this year. In other words, since the United States increased its counterterrorism operations in Africa, terrorism has increased by 75.000%...

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Right-wing extremists attack a journalist

Outrage over attack on journalists at AfD event

It was not the first time that the journalist was attacked in Thuringia. The fact that he was beaten and insulted at an AfD event caused outrage.

An attack on a journalist on the sidelines of an AfD event in Thuringia sparked outrage. The Thuringian Left co-chair Ulrike Grosse-Röthig spoke of an “attack on our democracy and the constitutional right to freedom of the press.” The state press conference wrote on X: “Freedom of the press is not negotiable. Anyone who sees it differently is endangering democracy.”

Insults, punches and screwing in the tire

The Ostthüringer Zeitung had reported that its reporter was first insulted and then beaten as he left the event hall on the sidelines of an AfD event in Plothen. In addition, his headgear was removed. When he wanted to drive off in the car, he discovered four sunk screws in his tires...

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Energy transition | Climate impacts | Debt brake

According to the Constitutional Court ruling

Traffic lights in the climate emergency

Better to spend nothing than spend correctly? No, the 60 billion hole in energy transition investments can definitely be filled.

Nobody has yet fully recovered from “Black Wednesday for the climate”. The traffic light federal government is faced with a shambles of its financial policy. The constitutional judges have forbidden it from conjuring 60 billion euros from the Corona period into its coffers using a voodoo trick in order to circumvent the debt brake.

It is likely to particularly affect energy transition projects whose financing is now in jeopardy. It's about such central things as promoting the expansion of renewable energy, building a charging infrastructure for electric cars, renovating the ailing Deutsche Bahn or natural climate protection, for example by restoring moors.

[...] The climate-friendly restructuring of the energy, industrial and transport systems costs a lot of money, and that has to be raised now, in this critical decade - especially since it will save much more of it in the medium and long term because the resulting climate damage will be less .

What use is a black zero in the federal budgets of the 2020s if series of extreme weather events hit the country and its people in the middle of the century?

Reduce environmentally harmful subsidies

The traffic light must use the fiasco with the climate and transformation fund, in which there is now a billion dollar hole, constructively - namely to redesign its financial policy, especially in the environmental and climate area, but not only there.

The most important point: reducing environmentally harmful subsidies. It's crazy that the German state spends billions of euros every year in order to then use its climate policy to curb the undesirable consequences. Here Lindner could get serious with his postulate that the state must spend its money cleverly...

17. November

CO2 emissions | Certificates | Climate protection projects | Greenwashing

CO2 certificate fraud?

Why so many forest projects are frauds

If you save a forest from the chainsaw, you can apply for CO₂ certificates - and sell them for a lot of money to companies that want to offset their emissions, be green and suddenly be "climate neutral". Experts estimate that this market with compensation projects could generate a trillion US dollars worldwide as early as 2040. But upon closer inspection, many forest projects turn out to be fraudulent, and many certificates turn out to be worthless. “There is no government regulation,” says Lambert Schneider from the Oeko-Institut in the “Climate Laboratory” about the biggest problem in an industry in which only voluntary standards apply. There are also no objective and clear criteria as to what exactly a project must achieve in order to receive CO₂ certificates. The results are climate protection projects in which balance sheet optimization is part of everyday life - and which have recently aroused the interest of Belarus and Russia.

ntv.de: Are there any projects on the market for CO₂ certificates that actually reduce emissions?

Lambert Schneider: Yes, but these projects are difficult to identify for both laypeople and institutional buyers. You have to look carefully because a lot of things can go wrong with carbon credit projects. For example, if I plant a forest that later burns down, the CO₂ will still be in the atmosphere. Therefore: The project must be additional; The reductions must be robustly quantified and not, as often happens, massively overestimated. There are a lot of details to consider, which is what makes it so complex...

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Emirates | Climate conference | Oil company

Host of the next climate conference

The United Arab Emirates apparently continues to routinely flare gas

Flaring gas in oil fields is very harmful to the climate - and should therefore be avoided. Despite its own guidelines, the oil company Adnoc seems to continue to do this almost every day, reports the British “Guardian”.

There was a lot of criticism in the run-up to the upcoming climate conference in the United Arab Emirates (UAE): the fact that host Sultan Al Jaber is not only industry minister, but also head of the state oil company Adnoc. The criticism is unlikely to become quieter in view of new research by the British “Guardian”.

Accordingly, gas is flared practically every day in the state-owned oil and gas fields. This is shown by satellite images from the period between 2018 and 2022, which the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) evaluated for the newspaper.

Of the 32 systems analyzed, 20 are operated by Adnoc. Gas was flared on four fields on at least 97 percent of the days observed. In one field, Adnoc LNG, even on more than 99 percent of the days...

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Propaganda | Capitalism | Civilization

Dysfunction and destruction

Our civilization is sick because all of its systems ensure that human behavior is driven by profit - and health is not profitable.

Caitlin Johnstone has a »Small first aid booklet against propaganda" released. It helps to be armed against the nonsense of our time.

Nobody gets rich if everyone stays healthy all the time. The wheels of capitalism will continue to turn even if the population becomes shallow and dull through poor education and miserable, profit-oriented art. Billionaires don't get rich by leaving forests and oceans untouched, consuming less, mining less, drilling less, using less energy. The economy does not thrive when the world lives in peace and nations work together in harmony.

We exchange the real revolution for the feeling of being revolutionary

If an advanced AI were programmed to direct human behavior solely to achieve the greatest possible profit from existing technologies, this world would not be much different from the real one. We are controlled by unreflective, unfeeling systems that do not care about the well-being of our minds, our hearts, our health or our biosphere and will sacrifice anything to achieve the one goal they have set for themselves. That's just a lousy way to organize society. It doesn't work and has given us a dying world full of crazy idiots heading towards nuclear Armageddon on multiple fronts. Our systems have failed as spectacularly as anything can fail...

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Asylum law | Migration | Dehumanization

The term “irregular migration” and how it is used to deceive

Now on everyone’s lips: “irregular” or “illegal migration”. One of the new favorite terms of German politicians when it comes to discrediting refugees and implementing isolation fantasies. We explain why its use is not only questionable but also wrong.

As early as 2017, the AfD wrote in its paper on refugee policy that it wanted to stop “irregular migration across the Mediterranean.” Since then, the term has found its way into the supposed center of federal politics. Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz, for example, are only too happy to use it; it was eventually even included in the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties. And since the debate about escape and migration gained momentum in mid-2023, it has long served as an anchor not only for the FDP, but also the SPD and the Greens to justify ever-increasing tightening of asylum law and upgrading of the borders.

“illegal” = dangerous!?

Because “irregular” or even “illegal” – that of course sounds dangerous. Much scarier than “escape.” Someone who comes “illegally” – that’s what the politicians want to suggest – is someone who has dirt on them anyway, and no decent citizen can really want people like that. And the calculation works: now even the most absurd and human rights-violating proposal gets applause if it is only directed against “illegal migrants”...

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Nuclear waste | Repository | Castor

He shines and shines and shines

Where to put the nuclear waste? The search for the best possible location for an underground repository extends the dangerous interim storage process by decades.

The search is for the “best possible” location, a place for the highly radioactive legacies of the atomic age. The search has been going on for five years, using a “science-based and transparent process” that the federal and state governments had agreed on. The law states that the suitable location must be found by 2031. The final repository would then have to be built and the nuclear waste stored.

Children born today could still experience this. But the schedule is out of date. A final storage location could be decided on in 2046 at the earliest, and if things go badly, even as late as 2068. The Federal Agency for Final Storage (BGE), which is responsible for the search, announced this a year ago. This means that safe final disposal will be postponed until well into the 22nd century.

[...] 1900 Castor containers serve as a final barrier against violence or fire. The spent fuel rods are repacked into these massive, six-meter-tall steel containers before being stored. Each individual container contains a radioactive inventory that is comparable to what was released in the Chernobyl reactor disaster in 1986. It is unclear what radioactivity, neutron radiation and waste heat have done inside the castors over the years; so far none of the loaded containers have been opened again...

16. November

AfD | Party congress | Monitor | Press freedom

Interim disposal

AfD must grant ARD magazine “Monitor” access to the party conference

A team from “Monitor” was refused permission to report on the AfD Thuringia party conference. However, other media are permitted. The WDR took action against it with an interim injunction - and was now right.

According to a preliminary court order, the Thuringian AfD must grant the ARD political magazine "Monitor" access to its state party conference. The Erfurt regional court announced on Thursday that the application by the public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) for an interim injunction had been granted.

According to a court spokesman, the AfD has called for an oral hearing in the matter. It is unclear how the case will continue and whether there will be a trial.

[...] The DJV federal chairman Mika Beuster had announced that the AfD was "demonstrating its disturbed relationship to press freedom and critical journalistic reporting". 

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EU Commission | Pesticide | Glyphosate

Weed killer:

EU Commission announces glyphosate approval for another ten years

Glyphosate on European fields – yes or no? There is no agreement on this among the EU states. The commission decided to extend the approval.

The EU Commission has announced the approval of the controversial weed killer glyphosate for another ten years. According to diplomats, representatives of the member states were once again unable to agree on a common position - the Commission therefore decided on its own.

According to the authority's proposal, the use of glyphosate will be permitted in the EU until 2033, but the use of the weed killer will be subject to conditions in the future. Among other things, farmers should maintain buffer strips that are at least five meters wide. Member States should also be able to limit the amount and frequency of use of the drug...

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Assange | Press freedom | Journalism

New moves to release Julian Assange

There is another attempt in the US Parliament from both parties to stop the prosecution of the prominent whistleblower.

There are new attempts in the US Parliament to end Julian Assange's imprisonment. An open letter is circulating among parliamentarians calling on President Joe Biden to end the Australian's detention. It was written by Democratic Representative Jim McGovern and Republican Thomas Massie.

The Wikileaks founder is accused of several crimes, the punishment of which amounts to more than 170 years in prison. The 52-year-old has been in the British high-security Belmarsh prison since April 2019 and is awaiting extradition to the USA. He spent the years 2012 to 2019 in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition. The letter from the two US representatives follows a similar initiative by US representative Rashida Tlaib in spring 2023.

“Journalism is not a crime.”

Jim McGovern, US Representative

The two MPs write that Assange's continued imprisonment is damaging press freedom worldwide, the reputation of the USA and therefore every individual. “The bottom line is that journalism is not a crime,” the Intercept quoted McGovern as saying. The work of reporters is about transparency, trust and keeping an eye on those in power...

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Greens | Armaments | Climate protection | Compromises

Open letter to party leadership:

The Green base protests

Over 400 members of the Green Party are calling on the Federal Executive Board to return to the basic values: open dialogue instead of moderation.

BERLIN taz | Shortly before the federal party conference of the Greens, several hundred members are demanding a course correction from the party leadership. In an open letter they advocate a “values-driven alliance-green policy and grassroots democracy.” The title of the letter: “Back to the Greens”. More than 400 members nationwide signed within two days.

After the federal election, they hoped that the Greens' participation would really make a difference, the letter says. “Then came the decision on Lützerath, came the 100 billion for the Bundeswehr, came GEAS. There was a basic child benefit that will effectively not help any child out of poverty, and a federal budget that wanted to make savings, especially for young people. The result was a citizen's allowance that was too complicated and too low. The sector targets in the Climate Protection Act should be abolished. Deportation laws are being tightened.”

Of course, compromises would have to be made in a coalition, it goes on to say. But people are shocked that the compromises made by the Greens – “on each of these issues” – were sold as a success. “Sometimes it seems to us as if the Greens have turned from a party for real change into an advertising agency for bad compromises.” That is a harsh reproach to their own leadership...

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Brazil | Heat | Dryness

Felt temperature of 58,5 degrees

Heat wave in Brazil reaches peak

Headaches, nausea, circulatory problems: In Brazil, people suffer from temperatures well over 40 degrees. The Amazon region is experiencing its worst drought since records began.

Even before summer begins in the southern hemisphere, large parts of Brazil are suffering from a severe heat wave. This is expected to peak between Thursday and Friday. In the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro, the temperature felt like it rose to 58,5 degrees on Tuesday, as the state news agency Agencia Brasil reported.

The perceived temperature describes a person's perception of temperature, which, in addition to the actual air temperature, also depends on the humidity and the wind.

Temperatures well over 40 degrees were also measured in other regions, especially in the center and south of the country. The Brazilians were already groaning under high temperatures on Wednesday, and things are unlikely to change in the next few days.

The National Meteorological Institute classified the situation in 15 states and the federal district around the capital Brasília as very dangerous. There is a risk of dehydration, headaches, nausea and circulatory problems...

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16 November 2001 (INES ? Class.?) High Flux Reactor, Petten, NLD

Wikipedia

Institute of Energy

As part of the EURATOM treaty, the Netherlands and the then EURATOM Commission signed the treaty establishing the European research center in 1961, which was opened in Petten in 1962. It took over the high-flux reactor for materials research that had gone into operation the previous year and is now used primarily for the production of medical isotopes...

According to a report by the former IE director Frans Saris, on November 16, 2001, there was an officially concealed accident (station blackout = total power failure) in the High Flux Reactor, in which one was only just before a core meltdown. Due to a failure of the external power supply, the pumps used to cool the reactor suddenly lost power. After that, the emergency power supply failed, and due to the insufficient power supply, the operators also had great difficulty opening a valve that is used for passive emergency cooling...
 

AtomkraftwerkePlag

Netherlands

In 1955 the construction of the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten was started, with which one wanted to gain experience with atomic energy ...

In December 2021, the new government announced that it would build two new nuclear power plants and provide five billion euros for them. In addition, the term of the Borssele nuclear power plant is to be extended. The reasons given were climate change and an increase in the security of supply with energy...

15. November

Solidarity | Anti-Semite | Greta

War is peace, distance is closeness and humanity is hate

For the first time, Greta Thunberg represents a view that is not compatible with the media and supports the state - and is promptly declared an anti-Semite by the outraged Persians.

At a climate demonstration in Amsterdam, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg showed solidarity with the Palestinians. A man snatched the microphone out of her hand. He shouted that he hadn't come because of her political views, but because of climate protection. It may be that those outraged were not entirely wrong. Maybe that was the wrong stage for Ms. Thunberg - but what happened in the networks afterwards, the young woman really didn't deserve, despite all the criticism that could be leveled at her.

[...] But if in the end everyone uses such terms, then not everyone is right-wing or anti-Semitic. Basically, it isn't any anymore, because the meaningfulness of these terms is lost; they are then just synonyms for asshole, idiot or wanker. And there will no longer be any difference between people who call on Israel for a ceasefire and those who target synagogues - if everyone is anti-Semitic, you cover up those who really have anti-Semitic plans. Hitler would be proud of this blind, indignant people...

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Climate protection | Global Warming | CO2 emissions

Like five million years ago

Greenhouse gas concentrations are reaching record levels

Despite numerous climate conferences, warnings and reports: the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere continues to rise - and is once again reaching record levels. The result is more extreme weather, such as intense heat, rain and melting ice, warns the World Weather Organization (WMO).

The concentration of climate-damaging greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is rising from record to record. The most important of these, carbon dioxide (CO2), reached a striking mark last year: the concentration was 50 percent above pre-industrial levels, reported the World Weather Organization (WMO). This year the increase continued. The greenhouse gases methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) also reached record levels last year.

“Despite decades of warnings from the scientific community, despite thousands of pages of reports and dozens of climate conferences, we are still moving in the wrong direction,” said WMO chief Petteri Taalas, according to a statement. The last time CO2 concentrations as high as they are now was three to five million years ago, writes the UN Weather Organization. The average temperature was two to three degrees higher and the sea levels were ten to 20 meters higher...

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Climate protection | Constitutional Court | Umwelthilfe

Constitutional complaint against the federal government

Umwelthilfe goes to the Constitutional Court: “Many politicians have long been indifferent to climate protection”

Deutsche Umwelthilfe is taking the matter to the Federal Constitutional Court because it accuses the federal government of refusing to protect the climate. In the RND interview, managing director Jürgen Resch says that the government is not only violating the current law, but also the requirements of Karlsruhe.

In the constitutional complaint, you accuse the federal government of restricting the freedom of young people in the future with inadequate climate protection measures. What does that mean specifically?

Traveling and many other things that are normal for us today will no longer be possible in the future. Because if we take too long to implement the Paris climate protection goal, at some point we will have to slow down so brutally that many things will have to be banned. The Federal Constitutional Court has already stated in its 2021 decision that the civil liberties of young people will then be massively impaired. For this reason, the federal government has already had to improve its climate protection law and the goals have been tightened. However, it is not the goals that are important, but the measures. And these must be specified by the federal government in the climate protection program. But the climate protection program adopted last month still has a gap of more than 300 million tonnes of CO₂ to be saved by 2030. This not only violates the Climate Protection Act, but also the requirements set by the Federal Constitutional Court...

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Fossil | Climate Crisis | 1,5 degree

Despite the climate crisis

Fossil fuel companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new oil and gas fields

Global emissions are actually supposed to fall significantly, but hundreds of companies are still planning to develop new oil sources. Climate activists are alarmed. The 1,5 degree target is in danger of finally failing.

The international oil and gas multinationals are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the development of new deposits - despite record global temperatures and the promises of many countries to become greenhouse gas neutral in the medium term. This emerges from the “Global Oil & Gas Exit List,” which the environmental protection organization Urgewald and partner organizations published this Wednesday – and whose most important data was available to SPIEGEL in advance.

[...] One thing is clear: If corporations put their plans into action, it will be impossible to achieve global climate goals such as limiting the average temperature rise to 1,5 degrees. "In order to comply with the 1,5 degree limit, a rapid, controlled decline in oil and gas production is essential," said Bartsch. "Instead, the industry is ensuring that the climate crisis continues to worsen." Representatives of the energy industry have not yet commented on the list. 

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Concrete without Cement reduced CO2 emissions

Innovative building material

This medium-sized company is revolutionizing the building materials industry with its eco-paving stones

A family business from the Rhineland is showing the world how to make concrete paving stones and slabs without cement. The innovation makes it possible to build squares, paths and terraces that are much more climate-friendly.

At the beginning there was not an environmental concern, but rather a product shortage that seemed inevitable for ages. “Concrete paving stones and slabs have always developed lime efflorescence and the colors became paler over time. “Both are due to the unbound cement particles,” says Michael Metten. The company has been working on this topic since 2011. In 2015, Metten Stein + Design's five-person research and development team began focusing research on replacing the binder cement. Conventional concrete paving consists of around 13 percent cement.

[...] EcoTerra-Zero is the further development at Metten. Compared to conventional products, it reduces CO2 emissions by up to 75 percent. With an area of ​​10.000 square meters and a stone thickness of 10 centimeters, EcoTerraZero saves 70 tons of CO2," calculates entrepreneur Metten: "To bind this amount in one year, you would need 5600 fully grown beech trees."...

14. November

Siemens | Guarantee | Wind power

7,5 billion euros guarantee:

The federal government is helping Siemens

Siemens Energy is in crisis. The energy technology group negotiated with the federal government for a long time about possible help. Now the government has presented a solution.

BERLIN dpa | The federal government is granting Siemens Energy a guarantee of 7,5 billion euros. It is part of the required guarantee lines totaling 15 billion euros, which were agreed with private banks, among others, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Tuesday. This was preceded by weeks of negotiations.

Specifically, private banks are granting Siemens Energy guarantee lines totaling 12 billion euros, some of which are secured by the federal government's guarantee. The company is expected to secure another 3 billion in negotiations with other parties involved. The federal government will only provide the guarantee if the other parties involved also make their contributions...

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Israel | Anti-Semitism | Freedom of speech | Palestine

Critics of the Israeli government assert their right to speak

Publisher Georg Stein is committed to peace in the Middle East. The University of Jewish Studies in Heidelberg still wanted to prevent him from giving a lecture - unsuccessfully. About a considerable conflict.

A lecture by publisher and Middle East expert Georg Stein in the university town of Heidelberg on the topic of “Escalation in the Middle East” is making waves. First, the University of Jewish Studies tried to prevent local peace groups from organizing events with the managing director of the Palmyra Publishing House at the One World Center.

After she failed, she contacted the Ministry of the Interior in Baden-Württemberg about the matter. Now Michael Blume, the state government's representative against anti-Semitism, is demanding that the lecture be examined.

[...] To assume that his lecture at the One World Center had a "one-sided orientation" without his critics even knowing what he was going to talk about was "simply dubious." Likewise the statement that the planned event could spread “Israel hatred”. “Nothing is further from my heart,” emphasizes Stein.

The attempt to persuade the One World Center to cancel the event was “presumptuous”. It is not acceptable for the University of Jewish Studies to “decide virtually alone” who is allowed to comment on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and who is not. "We still live in a state with constitutionally protected freedom of expression."...

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RWE | Profit | Investments

How RWE doubles its profits

The Essen-based electricity supplier benefits from investments in solar and wind farms and from its gas power plants. More of these will soon be needed - but there is a hurdle.

Less electricity produced, but profits almost doubled: the first nine months of the year were extremely lucrative for the Essen-based electricity company RWE. “Our strong investment activity is paying off,” said Michael Müller, the DAX company’s CFO, on Tuesday when presenting the quarterly figures. The company has invested in green electricity - more than ten billion euros have flowed into green energy since the beginning of the year. For example, buying a US solar park operator, a British solar park developer or own wind and solar systems in Europe and the United States.

[...] In Germany, RWE will shut down its climate-damaging lignite-fired power plants by 2030 - although Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has just sown doubts about the coal phase-out this year. Until then, the Essen-based company would like to build gas power plants that, just like in Great Britain, step in when there is too little wind and too little sun. These power plants should also be able to burn climate-friendly hydrogen instead of natural gas. However, these systems are only supposed to run for a few hours. In order for the high investments in the stability of the supply to still be worthwhile, the state must support these projects. However, the federal government has still not presented a concept for this. “Something has to happen quickly,” said Müller, so that RWE has planning security and can push ahead with investments in the coming year...

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Democracy | Military-industrial complex | Arms trade

Why the military-industrial complex is in a celebratory mood

Biden praises gun manufacturers as an “arsenal of democracy.” But they benefit from death and war. About one of the biggest sources of uncertainty in the world. 

The New York Times headline says it all: "Middle East War Adds to Surge in International Arms Sales." The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and beyond may cause untold and unconscionable human suffering, but they also increase the profits of weapons manufacturers around the world.

There was a time when such arms sales were at least reason to speak of the "death dealers" or "war profiteers." However, given the treatment of the industry by the mainstream media and the Washington establishment, as well as the nature of the current conflicts, that time is clearly over.

[...] Hailing the U.S. arms industry as the "arsenal of democracy" obscures the numerous ways it undermines our security and wastes our tax dollars.

Shouldn't it be time to subject the military-industrial complex to greater democratic control rather than romanticizing it? After all, so many lives depend on him.

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Israel | Settlers expel Palästinians from the West Bank

Violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is increasing

Amid Israel's retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip, human rights groups report increasing violence from settlers in the West Bank. A report from the Israeli-occupied territories.

[...] On October 7, Hamas's attack on Israel killed approximately 1200 people in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. Around 240 people were captured and are still being held hostage in Gaza. The attack also led to Israel launching retaliatory strikes and a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, more than 11.000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed since then as a result of the Israeli bombing of the sealed off area. Rockets continue to be fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Settler violence in the West Bank

The war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is also affecting Palestinians in the West Bank. Since then, 168 Palestinians have been killed there by Israeli forces and another eight by Israeli settlers, according to OCHA. Three Israelis died in Palestinian attacks.

According to the United Nations, 16 Bedouin and farming communities, home to about 1150 people, have been displaced and forced to evacuate or demolish their homes and livestock pens.

[...] Some of the residents now rely on the presence of Israeli activists who keep watch in the village around the clock. But these activists were also attacked in several areas and harassed by settlers - some of them in military uniform, it is said. Yehuda Shaul is an Israeli activist and co-founder of the Israeli non-governmental organization Breaking the Silence. He now works for another organization called Ofek and currently spends much of his time in the southern Hebron hills helping villagers.

"For years, the military did not intervene to protect the Palestinians," Shaul told DW, "but since October 7, when the war began, the settlements' rapid reaction forces - consisting of local "Settlers - have been recruited into reserve service and are now in uniform with weapons and full equipment with the authority of soldiers." The Palestinians basically have nothing left to protect themselves, he adds...

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Cement | CO2 emissions | Concrete mix

Slag makes concrete more climate-friendly

Waste product from silicon manganese production reduces CO2 emissions from concrete

Slag instead of cement: Slag produced during ore processing can make concrete more climate-friendly and reduce the need for CO2-intensive cement. Up to 40 percent of the cement can be replaced by a finely ground waste product from silicon manganese production without affecting the stability of the concrete, as a pilot test in Norway has shown. The slag concrete saves up to 95 percent of the CO2 emissions that would otherwise be caused by the cement content.

Along with steel production, cement production is one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gases among industries - it accounts for around eight percent of global CO2 emissions. The reason: When the limestone is burned, calcium carbonate is converted into calcium oxide and this releases CO2. In addition, lime burning requires large amounts of energy, which until now has primarily come from fossil fuels.

The world is therefore looking for methods to make cement production more climate-friendly, for example by capturing CO2 or new production processes. At the same time, experiments are being carried out to reduce the proportion of cement in building materials such as concrete. To do this, parts of the cement are replaced with coal ash, waste from aluminum production or even plastic waste...

13. November

Climate protection | Sector | Certificate

Climate protection: Germany risks billions in fines from Brussels

With the amendment to the Climate Protection Act, EU requirements can be ignored. Sector targets are being abolished in Germany. Why are there threats of fines running into billions?

The traffic light's fear of voters is currently leading to strange capers in German legislation. In the planned reform of the Climate Protection Act, which the coalition launched in the summer after a long dispute, the binding requirements for individual sectors of the economy and their CO₂ emissions, the so-called sector targets, were deleted again. The fact that this action violates EU law and triggers billions in fines was obviously accepted in the interest of coalition peace.

[...] The federal government can abolish the sectoral targets for Germany, but they remain in place at EU level. And there the following applies: If a country does not meet its climate targets in a sector, it has to buy so-called emissions certificates from other countries that have met their targets.

This could be expensive for taxpayers. Estimates currently range up to double-digit billions. There could also be fines from the EU, as Germany may also be violating EU law with the new law...

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United States | SMR | NuScale | NRTS Idaho

“Small Modular Reactors”

Mini nuclear power plant will not be built

Setback for the advocates of SMR technologies: The small nuclear power plant in the western United States, planned as a showcase project, has been canceled for cost reasons. At the same time, a new study shows how unrealistic the scenarios for saving the climate through the expansion of nuclear power are.

[...] Actually, six of the new nuclear power plant modules, each with an output of 77 megawatts, were supposed to be built in the state of Idaho in the northwest of the USA. Nuscale and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (Uamps) electricity company have now announced that they will end the jointly planned “Carbon Free Power Project”.

[...] There are currently 415 nuclear reactors in operation worldwide, but according to DIW it is expected that half of them will be shut down by 2030 for reasons of age. If the new nuclear power plant construction rate increases by 59 percent, as in the optimistic scenario of the IPCC special report on the 1,5 degree limit from 2018, more nuclear power plants would have to be built in the next ten years than are currently on the grid are.

[...] The DIW team explains the contradiction between overly optimistic scenarios and reality with political-economic, institutional and geopolitical factors. Above all, the close connection between military and commercial use of nuclear energy as well as the nuclear industry's interest in self-preservation played a role...

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Brazil | Leukaemia | Pesticides

Wave of lawsuits against the Bayer Group: cancer caused by pesticides?

As soybean production increases, more agrochemicals are sprayed. A study suggests that this is why more children are dying of cancer. What data is still missing?

The increased use of pesticides due to growing soy cultivation is associated with more deaths among children under the age of ten - this is suggested by a recent study from the USA, the results of which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Specifically, the team led by Marin Skidmore from the University of Illinois examined the increase in cancer mortality among children under the age of ten in the Amazon region and in the Cerrado, which is characterized by wet savannas. Soy cultivation is becoming increasingly widespread in both ecosystems. Between 2008 and 2019, 123 children died here from acute lymphoblastic leukemia - the most common blood-based cancer in children.

Scientists see a significant connection between the expansion of Brazilian soy production and child deaths from leukemia in the region...

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Morocco | BMW | Cobalt mine | Arsen

High arsenic levels in cobalt mine

BMW in distress because of suppliers in Morocco

A cobalt mine owned by the Moroccan royal family is causing problems for BMW. Investigative reporters discover arsenic levels in the area that are hundreds of times higher. The operators should also not take the protection of workers too seriously. The car manufacturer needs the raw material for batteries.

BMW says it is trying to clarify the situation following a report on environmental and occupational safety violations at a cobalt mine in Morocco. The company approached the supplier Managem and requested additional information from the company, said a BMW spokesman. “If there is any misconduct, it must be stopped.” The BMW spokesman said the first allegations against Management had already emerged in the summer. At the time, the company provided BMW with documents that looked credible. The mine operator's environmental certificates are up to date, he added. A request to Managem for a statement has so far remained unanswered...

12. November

West Africa | CO2 certificates | Dubai

Dubious CO₂ emissions trading

Liberia is selling off its tropical forest

The world climate summit in the Persian Gulf begins at the end of November. The hosts are making controversial deals: They want to lease large parts of Liberia - and are encountering resistance in the tropical forest.

[...] A company leases the forest and protects it from deforestation. She can have certificates issued for this. Large corporations or states then buy these certificates through intermediaries in order to compensate for their own CO₂ emissions. The corporations can then describe themselves as “climate-neutral,” and the states can continue to pollute with impunity – it will supposedly be remedied elsewhere. This principle has been highly controversial for a long time and numerous projects have been convicted of fraud.

But the so-called emissions market is booming, especially in Africa. At the first African climate summit in September, the issue was massively promoted, with the USA and Arab countries in particular supporting it. Many African governments sense big money, including Liberia. The Liberian government signed a spectacular memorandum of understanding with the company Blue Carbon in March; it is based in Dubai and belongs to a member of the royal family. A tenth of Liberian territory should therefore be placed under protection in order to create CO₂ certificates, leased to the company from the Emirates for decades...

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Nuclear phase-out | Renewables | Electricity price | nuclear power

Has the nuclear phase-out increased our electricity prices?

And how much nuclear energy does Germany now import from abroad? The most important questions and answers about the electricity market 

[...] Despite the shutdown of the last three German nuclear power plants in mid-April, electricity prices are lower today than at the beginning of the year. This shows that other factors have a greater impact on the price than the exit. This is because Germany is not an island, but receives electricity from many countries and exports it there. Some cross-border trade is not yet working smoothly because there are no lines. But they are gradually being expanded. In any case, on the European market with an electricity consumption of 3315 terawatt hours, the 30 terawatt hours of the last three decommissioned German nuclear power plants are hardly significant.

[...] The electricity that comes from the socket increasingly comes from renewable sources. Bruno Burger from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg has calculated that in the first half of this year, 57,7 percent of the electricity consumed was generated using sun, wind, water and biomass. The lost nuclear power was largely covered by imports, especially from the Nordic countries. But wind power was also imported from France – and nuclear energy. Both are significantly cheaper than the electricity produced by German coal or gas power plants. Because they have to spend a lot of money on fuel and CO₂ certificates. According to the Freiburg Fraunhofer Institute, this amounts to around 14 cents per kilowatt hour in hard coal power plants and around 12 cents in lignite power plants. With wind energy, on the other hand, there are significantly lower running costs; once the wind turbine is set up, electricity generation is almost free. French nuclear power is comparatively cheap because the companies were nationalized and rehabilitated with taxpayers' money; otherwise they would have gone bankrupt. So you could also say: France subsidizes German consumers with its exports...

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Climate conference | Dubai | Marketing | McKinsey

McKinsey and the climate conference

The Doom Advisors

The World Climate Conference begins in Dubai in just under three weeks. Will it become a farce? The conference president is an oil manager – and he has a suicidal plan for climate policy. Thanks to McKinsey.

[...] It's as if drug addicts meet for group therapy, but the supposed therapist is a major dealer with professional marketing support.

ExxonMobil needs to go down

According to the AFP report, McKinsey provides the consulting services “pro bono”, i.e. without a fee. Of course, that's not entirely true, because McKinsey is paid by those who want to make trillions of dollars from global warming. According to AFP, McKinsey's clients include ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, BP and Shell; some of the largest oil companies in the world.

[...] When asked by AFP about his role, McKinsey said: "We are proud to support COP28 by providing strategic insights and analysis as well as sector-specific and technical expertise."

[...] To give a sense of the magnitude of the profits at stake: According to a 2022 scientific study based on World Bank data, the oil and gas companies and the petrostates alone have made around one trillion from 1970 to 2020, adjusted for inflation US dollars per year profit made. Almost three billion dollars a day. Every day, for fifty years. Profit, not sales. Corporations have earned the most in the last 20 years. In 2022 they set a new record...

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Energy transition | Heat pump | Smart meter

Energy Transition Index: Germany is lagging behind when it comes to smart meters and heat pumps

According to a study, the Federal Republic is making little progress compared to other European countries in restructuring the electricity market for renewables. The flexibility gap is large.

When it comes to implementing the energy transition, Germany is still quite far behind compared to 13 other European countries. This emerges from the fourth report for the Energy Transition Readiness Index, which the British trade association Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) has now published together with the energy management company Eaton. On the scale from one to five, on which five is the highest value, the Federal Republic only achieves a place in the lower midfield with a three minus, together with Italy and Spain. Only Switzerland, Greece and, above all, Poland perform even worse.

According to the analysis, the use of heat pumps in Germany remains comparatively low despite significant efforts by the federal government and the Bundestag. In this country there are only 1000 devices per 38 households, while in Norway there are 625, in Sweden 503 and in Finland 438. These Scandinavian countries, together with Denmark, generally lead the rankings in the index.

[...] Intelligent electricity meters and the associated interfaces are considered key components for the control and billing of decentralized flexibility options such as photovoltaic systems on the roof. The Nordic countries achieve penetration of up to 100 percent here. Regarding Germany, the authors note that politicians have started a smart meter offensive and the penetration rate should increase to 2030 percent by 95...

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China | offshore | Wind energy

Revolution in wind energy: China's giant surpasses Siemens and Ørsted

Siemens Energy and Ørsted report losses, while China boasts a mega wind turbine. The system should even be able to withstand typhoons.

Recently there was again shocking news from Europe's wind power industry and thus for the energy transition: Siemens Energy had to ask the federal government around Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) for state guarantees worth billions in order to be able to stay in the business with the giant rotors. And Danish wind project developer Ørsted reported a loss of around 2,7 billion euros for the first nine months of 2023 due to spiraling costs and supply chain problems. The news about the sector from China is completely different. The manufacturer Mingyang Smart Energy has announced a mega wind turbine for offshore operation that dwarfs all previous developments.

[...] The current record announcement from Mingyang therefore fits in with the assessment expressed by manager Martin Knops of the Belgian company ZF Wind Power at this year's Husum wind trade fair. He stated that the “heart” of wind energy now beats in China, as the trade magazine “Neue Energie” quoted him as saying.

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Independency | Colonialism | Slaves

More than just looted art: The West and its colonial legacy

The issue of colonialism is anything but over. What remains half a century after foreign rule. An essay.

In Germany, it was recently the Benin bronzes and similar museum holdings that reminded us of our own colonial history. The colonial empire, which was won late, had already been ended or rather taken over by the Allies during the First World War.

Coming to terms with the massacres of the Herero and Nama in what is now Namibia between 1904 and 1908 was more problematic. Hundreds of thousands of Africans lost their lives at the hands of the German colonial army. It was only a hundred years later that descendants of the Herero and Nama in the USA sued the Federal Republic of Germany for compensation.

The 2021 billion euros in reparations promised in May 1,1 after six years of negotiations are to flow into development projects over the next 30 years, but many in Namibia find this to be insufficient. So there are still unpleasant long-term consequences for Germany.

For the great historical colonial powers of Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Great Britain and the USA, the issue of decolonization appeared to be largely over after the wars of independence in many African, Asian and Latin American countries that had resulted in losses for both sides.

Apart from spectacular actions in which the monuments are toppled by slave and opium traders, there are occasional unsuccessful demands for their return to the British Museum, as for the sculptures from the Athens Parthenon known as the Elgin Marbels.

But there is also criticism of neo-colonialism and “informal colonialism”. France is currently losing its influence in the former colonies in West Africa and is withdrawing completely from Niger, from where it was previously able to obtain strategically important raw materials such as uranium at preferential prices.

Apart from such long-term consequences, there remains a little-noticed remnant of colonial history in the form of territories that still belong to the old powers...

Current news+

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Violence | Heat | Climate change

Violence as a consequence of climate change:

No cool heads

Climate change is not only an ecological but also a social crisis. Because rising temperatures mean more violence, scientists say.

Heat waves in the world's oceans, melting ice in the Arctic, forest fires in Canada - according to an analysis by the European Earth observation program Copernicus, 2023 will be the warmest year in 125.000 years.

The fact that a Medicane raged in the Mediterranean and thousands of people died in a flood catastrophe in the Libyan desert has almost been forgotten due to all the war news from the Middle East and Ukraine, which is also so fatal because climate change is so difficult to grasp from a psychological perspective. There is no loud bang or smoke that signals: Hey, this is dangerous!

But such extreme weather events will become more frequent and severe in the future - with consequences: Food prices will continue to rise if container ships cannot pass through the Panama Canal due to a lack of rain and vegetable gardens wither and people flee when crops fail and houses are destroyed. In addition to an ecological crisis, climate change is also a social crisis that hits the most vulnerable in society the hardest.

Violence increases with higher temperature

A study by international scientists shows this particularly drastically. They found that global warming is associated with increased domestic violence against women in South Asian countries.

In the long-term study, almost 200.000 girls and women between the ages of 15 and 49 in India, Pakistan and Nepal were surveyed between 2010 and 2018 about their experiences with emotional, physical and sexual violence. Result: With one degree increase in average temperature, physical violence increases by eight percent and sexual violence by 7,3 percent.

Of course: correlation does not mean causation. Just because the outside temperature rises doesn't mean a man becomes violent. But the researchers present a coherent causal chain that can explain this phenomenon: extreme events destroy crops, families lose their income, men stay at home and vent their frustration there - on women.

Even in Kenya, where 75 percent of people derive their income from agriculture, climate change is leading to economic stress that is leading to domestic violence. The connection between extreme weather and gender-based violence is very robust, as a meta-study shows.

Economic stress turns into domestic violence

Especially in patriarchal societies, where men still play the role of head of the family and “main breadwinner”, the economic instability and insecurity of supply caused by global warming is increasing the already strong dependence of women on men.

The connection between global warming and increased propensity for violence can be observed not only at a sociological level, i.e. within families, but also in society as a whole.

The economists Marshall Burke, Solomon M. Hsiang and Edward Miguel have shown in a quantitative study that conflicts between groups increase as temperatures rise: For example, tensions between Hindus and Muslims in Central Asia are more likely when rainfall is heavier and destroys crops .

It is no coincidence that the world's largest economies with robust conflict management are clustered in a temperature optimum of 13 degrees Celsius average temperature.

Largest economies at 13 degrees Celsius

Scientists have repeatedly pointed out the distribution struggles over scarce resources such as water or grain, which can no longer be moderated in multi-ethnic societies with weak state structures and a lack of social security and result in armed conflicts.

The latest wave of coups in the Sahel region may have been caused by climate change: economists Ahmadou Aly Mbaye and Landry Signé show in a paper that the number of conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa is linked to rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall has increased massively in recent years. According to some researchers, the Syrian civil war could also have been triggered by a climate-related drought.

Of course, peace and conflict research knows many causes of conflict such as poverty, inequality or nationalism, and the conflict dynamics in civil war regions are sometimes so complex that it is difficult to differentiate between individual triggers and causes. Droughts appear to be one of these triggers.

Climate change will exacerbate distribution conflicts and thus also increase the risk of armed conflict. Water wars, such as those already emerging between the states bordering the Nile, will become more frequent in the future.

Notorious climate deniers are being elected

Although the consequences of climate change are evident, two notorious climate deniers, for example Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Donald Trump in the USA, were elected to the presidency. In an essay, environmental researcher Joel Millward-Hopkins drew attention to the paradox of why the effects of climate change do not make the reduction of emissions more likely.

The consequences of climate change, which are also being felt in the US in the form of heat waves, floods and crop failures, are leading to greater inequality, refugee movements and crime, increasing calls for strong leaders who will in turn prioritize migration over climate policy. People would rather build walls than wind turbines.

Global warming is fueling a form of authoritarian populism, which could also be observed in this country in the debate about the heating law, where the AfD stirred up the mood with aggressive election posters such as “Let’s heat up the traffic lights” or “Stop the heating hammer”. To say that one must keep a cool head in the heat of interpretation and opinion would be psychopolitically too short-sighted. But the fact is: global warming has long since influenced the social climate.

Background knowledge

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The map of the nuclear world

War needs the heated minds of confused people...

The “Internal Search”

with the search terms

Violence | Heat | Climate change

brought the following results, among others:
 

May 27, 2023 - Have climate change deniers taken power in the FDP parliamentary group?

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January 12, 2023 - Climate Fraud: Exxon knew everything

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September 24, 2022 - Fridays for Future demands: "100 billion euro special fund for climate protection!"

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August 17, 2022 - What no politician dares to say

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December 14, 2021 - Nobel Prize winners call for two percent disarmament for the climate

The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!

Search word = heat violence

https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Hitze%20Gewalt
 

Wikipedia

aggression

Aggression (Latin aggressiō from the deposit aggredī to move towards [sth./sb.]; advance; approach; attack) is a hostile, attacking behavior of an organism. It is a behavioral pattern biologically anchored in animals (and including humans) to defend or obtain resources and to cope with potentially dangerous situations. In humans, these ultimate causes are triggered, activated or inhibited by proximate causes in the personality or the environment and motivated by various emotions.

The American physiologist Walter Cannon coined the term fight-or-flight in 1915; The doctor Hans Selye created the “General Adaptation Syndrome” in 1936 as a model of the human reaction to chronic stress (for more information see Stress Reaction).

Specific situations and stimuli are required to trigger aggression. In humans, emotional aggression is often caused by negative feelings, for example as a reaction to frustration, heat, cold, pain, fear or hunger...
 

Suspected triggers of aggression

The world's largest arms suppliers are the United States of America, followed by Russia, Germany, France, China and Great Britain. All of these countries have highly developed defense industries and are in competition with each other to develop new and more effective weapon systems. The numbers in the following table are from the 2016 SIPRI database and are rounded to billions of US dollars based on 1990 prices...

YouTube

Search word = heat violence aggression

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Hitze+Gewalt+Aggression
 

wettercom - July 19, 2022 - 3:02

Why does the heat make us so aggressive?

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ZDFheute News - May 28, 2022 - 6:33

Deadly heat: almost 50 degrees in India

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Social Psychology with Prof. Erb - June 27, 2019 - 12:57

Does heat make you aggressive?
 

Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...

This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic

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