I have two major stories out of Germany to report, one on the rise of Climate Skepticism into the mainstream, as Germany’s Top Environmentalist Turns Climate Sceptic, saying
“I couldn’t take it any more. I had to write this book.”
Doubt came two years ago when he was an expert reviewer of an IPCC report on renewable energy. “I discovered numerous errors and asked myself if the other IPCC reports on climate were similarly sloppy.”
….and the other major story is on the failure of solar and wind power in Germany. First, the mainstream skepticism:
Body Blow To German Global Warming Movement! Major Media Outlets Unload On “CO2 Lies!”
Excerpts reposted from NoTricksZone by Pierre Gosselin
Today Germany’s national tabloid Bild (which has a whopping circulation of 16 million) devoted half of page 2 on an article called:.
“THE CO2 LIES … pure fear-mongering … should we blindly trust the experts?”
That’s what Germany’s leading daily Bild (see photo) wrote in its print and online editions today, on the very day that renowned publisher Hoffmann & Campe officially released a skeptic book – one written by a prominent socialist and environmental figure.
This is huge. More than I ever could have possibly imagined. And more is coming in the days ahead! The Bild piece was just the first of a series.
Mark this as the date that Germany’s global warming movement took a massive body blow.
Today, not one, but two of Germany’s most widely read news media published comprehensive skeptical climate science articles in their print and online editions, coinciding with the release of a major climate skeptical book, Die kalte Sonne (The Cold Sun).
Germany has now plunged into raucous discord on the heated topic of climate change
What has set it all off? One of the fathers of Germany’s modern green movement, Professor Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt, a social democrat and green activist, decided to author a climate science skeptical book together with geologist/paleontologist Dr. Sebastian Lüning. Vahrenholt’s skepticism started when he was asked to review an IPCC report on renewable energy. He found hundreds of errors. When he pointed them out, IPCC officials simply brushed them aside. Stunned, he asked himself, “Is this the way they approached the climate assessment reports?”
Vahrenholt decided to do some digging. His colleague Dr. Lüning also gave him a copy of Andrew Montford’s The Hockey Stick Illusion. He was horrified by the sloppiness and deception he found. Well-connected to Hoffmann & Campe, he and Lüning decided to write the book. Die kalte Sonne cites 800 sources and has over 80 charts and figures. It examines and summarizes the latest science.
Conclusion: climate catastrophe is called off
The science was hyped. The book started hitting the bookshops today and has already hit no. 1 on the Amazon.de list for environment books. Indications show that it will climb very high in the overall bestseller charts. It’s published by a renowned publishing house and is now sending shock waves through the German climate science establishment. The first printing will produce 20,000 copies. I expect they will sell out rather quickly.
Read it all here.
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While all that is happening, the wind is going out of the sails in the highly subsidized solar and windfarm business in Germany. Michael Limburg writes from Germany that:
We published this very comprehensive study from our author Dr. Günter Keil titled “ Germany´s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed”. (http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/news-cache/germanys-green-energy-supply-transformation-has-already-failed/)
German version here: http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/climategate-anzeige/die-energiewende-ist-schon-gescheitert-mit-update-4112/
It has won a lot of attention and was published in all german speaking sceptic blogs and is as well most regarded by our politicians.
Since a lot of green zealots in all countries praise Germany as the wonderland of manageable green miracles it might be helpful to show them the reality
I am therefore proud and happy to tell you that we managed to translate this very valuable piece of information which reveals the blindness and fanaticism of our present politicians which destroys willingly the backbone of our economy. Please make best use of it. I am sure you will welcome this information. The full report and the press release are attached.
Here is the English version:
Germany’s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed!
Energy expert Dr. Guenter Keil has closely examined Germany’s energy policy of shifting away from nuclear and fossil fuels and over to renewables. What he finds is a bleak picture. Years ago Germany ambitiously embarked on transforming its energy supply system, and hopes to supply at least 80% of its energy needs through renewable energies by 2050, and thus become a moral leader on environmental responsibility for the rest of the world.
To do this, the former Socialist-Green coalition government, led by Gerhard Schröder, enacted the so-called Renewable Energy Feed-In Act (EEG) in 2000. This Feed-In Act requires electric utilities to buy all renewable energies, such as solar and wind power, from all producers at fixed, exorbitant rates and to feed it into the power grid for a period of 20 years. This has led to a boom as thousands of homeowners, businesses, and investors have installed thousands of megawatts of solar and wind power capacity over the years. The current Conservative-Liberal government, not to be outdone by its predecessor, is also gleefully pushing the Feed-In Act to the limit.
Weather-dependent supply wreaking havoc on the power grid
The problem is that these energy sources are weather-dependent and thus their sporadic supply is starting to wreak havoc on Germany’s power grid and is even now threatening to destabilize power grids all across Europe. The other problem: the power grid needed to distribute the decentrally produced green power is simply not there yet. They forgot to build it! So far, after tens of billions of euros spent on renewable energy systems and higher prices for consumers, not a single coal or gas-fired power plant has been taken offline. To the contrary, old inefficient plants have been brought back into service in an effort to stabilize the grid.
In a panic reaction, Germany shut down 8 nuclear power plants
To make matters worse, in a fit of panic and hysteria, the German government shut down 8 of its older 18 nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, thus removing a very cheap and stable supply of power and further pushing the grid to the limits. Before the shutdown of the nuclear reactors, Germany had been a net power exporter; today it is a net power importer and is at times severely straining neighboring power grids. To compensate for the missing nuclear power, the government is now heavily promoting even more weather-dependent wind power, which is further destabilizing the German and European power grids. A solution to the problem of storing electricity is still at least a generation away.
The question of course is how could such absurd decisions have been made to begin with? Were there no experts involved in the planning of the new power generation infrastructure? The answer obviously is no. Power executives are viewed as evil, dirty and greedy polluters, and thus were never really consulted. They could not be counted on to give the politically correct solutions. Therefore the decision to shut down the German nuclear power plants and to massively support renewables was done unilaterally by the government, without consulting the power executives or even neighboring countries.
Offshore wind parks, but no transmission lines to industrial regions!
Now that the damage is spreading, Germany’s utilities are now struggling to keep the grid stable and to fill in the power gap left by the shut-down of nuclear reactors. To do this the German government has ordered the installation of large-scale wind parks in the North and Baltic seas, in addition to the re-commissioning of mothballed, inefficient coal-fired plants. This overall energy production transition from nuclear and fossils over to “renewables” is dubbed by German officials as the Energy Supply Transformation. Construction of the offshore wind parks is now progressing rapidly. But there’s just one problem: the huge high voltage power transmission lines needed to bring their power to Germany’s industrial heartland to the south are missing! More than 3000 km of these lines are needed, but are nowhere near in sight. The government forgot about those too!
Activists groups blocking grid expansion
Building the power transmission lines quickly across the landscape will be a virtually impossible task. Activist groups have long since organized and are effectively blocking their approval and construction. So far only a measly 214 km have been built. As a result, surplus wind power cannot be delivered to the markets, and thus either has to be destroyed, dumped on the market at “negative prices”, or wind park owners are simply ordered to stop generating. No problem though – paragraph 12 of Germany’s Energy Feed-In Act requires electric utilities to pay for the electricity that they ask not to have produced! Technically, there is an incentive for wind parks to destabilize the grid.
Eventually all these costs add up and in the end they get passed along to the consumer. Under the bottom line, consumers have to pay more and more, and for a lower and lower quality supply. German industry is getting nervous and surveys show that many are leaving Germany, or are planning to do so. They no longer view Germany’s power supply as reliable.
In a death spiral…”will fail spectacularly”
Dr. Guenter Keil’s report focusses in detail on the amazing absurdities of Germany’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Act and the country’s utopian Energy Transformation. The government, through intrusive meddling and ballooning bureaucracy, has maneuvered Germany’s energy supply system into a vicious death spiral: the more the government intervenes, the greater the mess becomes. And the greater the mess becomes, the more the government intervenes! Dr. Keil concludes:
“Germany’s energy transformation has already failed. For Germans, the outlook is bleak. …the planned mismanagement is heavily damaging the economy and will fail spectacularly some years later because its economic and social costs will have become unbearable. The question remaining open is how many billions of euros will have to be destroyed before a new energy policy (a new energy transformation?) picks up the shattered pieces.”
So it’s no wonder that according to a survey of experts from 21 national committees by the World Energy Council, 0% said they could imagine their own country completely taking over the German political approach. An equal number believe Germany will reach its stated targets.
Germany’s model will serve as a classic lesson on how not to handle energy production and management.
Michael Limburg; with thanks to Pierre Gosselin from notrickszone for excellent translation support
Dr. Guenter Keil was a scientific employee at the Technical University of Munich / Fraunhofer Society, as well as Project Support at the Federal Research Ministry.
For downloading full 
report & 
press release here or see files attached (remark: Downloads of .doc pressrelease with SAFARI seems not to work, FIRFOX workfs fine)
Not an environmenalist?
http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/en/66234/rwe/curriculum-vitae-prof-dr-fritz-vahrenholt/
Name: Prof. Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt
Date of birth: 08.05.1949
Education:
1968 – 1972 Degree in Chemistry at the University of Münster / Westphalia
Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
1972 – 1974 Doctorate in the field of Chemistry (Dr. rer. nat.)
Career:
1974 – 1975 Research work at the University of Münster and at the Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research, Mülheim
1976 – 1981 Head of the section “Chemical Industry” in the Federal Environmental Agency in Berlin
1981 – 1984 Head of Department of Environmental Policy, Waste Management and Air Pollution Control at the Hessian Ministry of Regional Development, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry
1984 – 1990 Deputy Minister in the City of Hamburg Environmental Ministry
1990 – 1991 Head of Chancellery of the City of Hamburg
1991 – 1997 Senator and Principal of the City of Hamburg Environmental Ministry
Supervisory Board Chairman of Hamburgische Elektrizitätswerke HEW AG, Hamburg utility
since 1991 Lecturer at the University of Hamburg (Chemistry Department), since April 1999 Professor of the chemistry department
1998 – 2001 Member of the Board of Directors of Deutsche Shell AG with responsibility for chemicals, renewable energy, public affairs, environment, electricity, 2001 member of the supervisory board
2001-2007 Chief executive of REpower Systems AG, Hamburg
Member of the “sustainability advisory board” to chancellor Schröder and Merkel, Berlin
since 01.02.2008 Chief Executive Officer, RWE Innogy GmbH, Essen
Additional mandates
Member of the supervisory board of Aurubis AG , Hamburg
Member of the supervisory board of Mateco AG, Stuttgart
Chairman of the supervisory board of Rheinkraftwerk Albbruck-Dogern AG, Laufenburg
Member of the board of New York Green Exchange
Member of the “Körber-Stiftung”, Hamburg
Member of the Senate of “Frauenhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.”
Member of the advisory committee of the German “Wildtier Stiftung”
Member of the supervisory board of “Putz & Partner Unternehmensberatungs AG”, Hamburg
fred houpt says:
February 7, 2012 at 11:39 am
http://www.ecogeek.org/component/content/article/3698
Fred, does it seem odd to you that 1/2 a degree C of warming over 130 years is depicted by global map coloring going from deep blue to bright red? Did it hit your alarm button? It was supposed to do that for you.
I think I’ve made a mistake. IIRC, the warming over 130 years was 1.3 degrees C and this website link to NASA shows + .51C since 1950. So is it true that +.79C warming happened between 1880 and 1949? Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m a voter but not a scientist, so I want to know what’s right before I go to the polls.
Still, the Blue to Red global map coloring is impressive, isn’t it?
Samurai says:
“I must caution myself not become too optimistic, as I felt the same sentiment during and after Climategates 1.0 and 2.0, but it somehow feels different this time… ”
Indeed it does. It feels like a mighty step has been taken. One that’s been long-awaited.
In 1994 when I first became professionally obligated to look into the matter, the availability of objective or skeptical information was atrociously scarce thankfully I had kept some of my college books in Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Physics, Geology, Oceanography, World History, etc.; so I immediately noticed the obvious zohnerism and thought:
If they can’t come up with better evidence than that, It’ll never last!
As time went on I noted that my friends and colleagues (Engineers, Chemists, Biologists and Mathematicians) were “skeptics” as well and generally speaking from what I could tell so were Meteorologists and Geologists, and I thought:
If they can’t convince the “working class” of science, It’ll never last!
Around 1997 or so, it was the Y2K bug and global warming was put on the back burner in the MSM and I thought:
If they can’t compete with something as simple as Y2K, it’ll never last!
At this point I lost focus on the issue due to being very busy with career and family and considering the matter a non-problem from my review of the evidence. I was shocked back into the reality that the man-made global warming crisis movement had indeed been building when a local news story proudly proclaimed that a local science teacher had shown “An Inconvenient Truth” as a documentary. I took a quick dive back into the issue before writing an editorial in the local paper. The availability of objective and skeptical information had increased tremendously on the internet with sites such as WUWT and I thought:
If they can’t keep the whole truth from being exposed, it’ll never last!
Then there was Climategate et al and I thought:
If they can’t maintain credibility, it’ll never last!
Then there were a series of scientific publications with skeptical implications such as lower sensitivity and 90% of living plants having the same carbon isotope ratios as fossil fuel emissions, etc. and I thought:
If they can’t maintain their control of “peer-reviewed” publications, it’ll never last!
And now here we are with a major MSM in a CAGW stronghold publishing skeptical articles and I’m thinking:
If they can’t keep the MSM on their side, it’ll never last!
In 2010 I told my boss (non-scientist) that if we made it until 2015 without any major regulation on CO2 that there wouldn’t be any, because by then it would be painfully obvious to everyone except the most deluded that it was all a case of making a mountain out of a mole hill from the beginning. I’m sticking with 2015, it’s taking a while but since they didn’t have very strong evidence to begin with and its evidentiary support has been declining ever since, they can’t convince the “working class” scientists that can keep the whole truth exposed thanks to the internet, which in turn keeps their credibility in question, such that now they’re losing control of peer-reviewed publications as well as the MSM not to mention legislators; it ‘ll never last! Although, I do suspect they won’t go quietly and there will be shrill voices from the true believers well past 2015, they’ll be regarded about the same as the Mayan 2012 doomsayers are today.
To Laurie:
Appreciate for your excellent background from Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt.
GWPF recently stated, he was one of the most important green environmentalists who quit out of his supports to IPCC. The story began 2 years ago. Who is telling the TRUTH!
http://acckkii.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/germanys-top-environmentalist-turns-climate-skeptic/
This has been one hell of a great day for truth and honesty in the area of climate and its determinants. It will be fascinating to see which of the USA’s MSM will be first to give some recognition to these anti-CAGW items.
I, for one, am NOT holding my breath !
The AGW scam has always been a case of “follow the money and you’ll find the crooks.” The complicit media are now going to make money from exposing all of the scandal it conveniently ignored. And we have true journalists to thank for chasing a story no “journolist” wanted to investigate.
Don’t get too excited. The ‘Bild” is a picture newspaper, akin to the British ‘The Sun’, it is little more than an adult comic with lots of celebrity gossip and pictures of minimally clothed young ladies. Both are conservative and nationalist so although this report will be important in getting to the masses – as the Bild is the 6th largest newspaper in the world – it may have little impact on the politicians. Now if the ‘Der Speigel’ has a report like this, it could become more mainstream. The German economy is under pressure to support economic basket cases in the EU and it can hardly absorb spending many more billions and billions to support energy supply policies which are unlikely to be a sustainable solution (oh, the paradox of ‘renewables’ and ‘sustainable’) for the energy demands of modern societies. Their energy policy needs to focus on stable energy supply and preferentially not dependent on sourcing such from external sources, i.e. Russia, as such dependency has been shown to be very bad policy for countries which are dependent for their energy needs outside their borders, i.e. USA.
John West,
Perfect. Your view is showing first of all one main important thing; life goes on, and congratulation that you spent your time with your esteemed family .
The theories we (as a whole) make, and we must do it, are something, and keeping the truth away from interests and conservancy is another thing.
The sound of “global warming finished” these days, is not good although it is admitted by all the scientists at once. There are still up and downs ahead. We have a simple example and it is “the light is linear” and “the light is wave” both are still working at the same time.
EU winter with cold weather made some of the scientists happy, it brought them “the global warming was finished”, we wait and see the next hot summer, again everything starts from the very beginning as a matter of fact. Interesting to say, the governments are following their tax over air travel system by %15, while we are heading towards ICE Age. We know the carbon emission fee. I found something about EV free of tax, and the governor was thinking about who is going to pay the roads maintenance fees. And the cars with compressed air power now how should they include tax for the AIR. We are behind a red light looking at the scientists and governments and of course THE INTERESTS. In this screen, who is telling us the closer to the truth the matters. And we should let the scientists say whatever they understand, this is their job, and we cannot blame them for their mistakes unless when the public interests are no longer considered.
http://acckkii.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/germany-sliding-head-over-heels-into-eco-dictatorship/
See What Germany is doing:
“In order to anchor future interests institutionally, the Council recommends expanding the parliamentary legislative process with a deliberative ”future chamber”. To avoid interference by interest group and political parties, the composition of this chamber could be determined, for example, by drawing lots.”
http://acckkii.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/germanys-top-environmentalist-turns-climate-skeptic/
http://acckkii.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/climategate-scientists-buried-study-that-failed-to-show-desired-result/
Told ya so top post and the Argentina malvinas issue is about guess what OIL! At least it not wind mills! Let us celebrate the end of AGW and I think we should let them all off (Mann Jones Ect)
Re. DIESEL
The fuel for the Russian T-34 tank was diesel. I have never heard that it had problems during the Russian winters. Can anyone comment on this?
Jerome: I’ve been through cold winters (-40 degrees, where C and F are identical) in northern British Columbia without problem, but only with gasoline engines. A spritz of ether in the carburetor (!) worked for the toughest problems, and a little squirt of methyl hydrate in the gas tank during each fill-up made those problems rare. Can you comment on methyl hydrate for diesel?
Mike Wryley says:
February 7, 2012 at 9:37 am
Yes, you’re right. However, the casual viewer will now understand how bad the “source code” really is.
Claude Harvey says: February 6, 2012 at 9:28 pm
Pathetic energy density and capacity factors doom both wind a solar, even at their theoretical conversion efficiency limits.
Hi Claude. What is you opinion of solar thermal? Suppose the temperate deserts of the world were covered in them and the power exported. Is this viable? Beyond the up front capitalisation cost, are these expensive to run on an ongoing basis?
I would like to comment to the blogs about BILD newspaper and Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt, because there are perhaps some details useful.
anorak2 said: “The news isn´t so much what´s written in the (BILD) article. The news is that a mainstream climate alarmist tabloid is changing sides. It´s a political signal.”
Absolutely ! Not long ago, BILD trumpeted “We have only 13 years” in front of a flaming planet. And all the other media presented the same story. The reason: The editorial staff is mostly green. Skeptical articles are systematically suppressed and the intensity of the brainwashing reminds me of the former communist East Germany. The government fears the media much more than the opposition in the parliament.
And BILD is by far the biggest newspaper. Not green, but without any preference, except scandals. Now they seem to have decided that bashing the AGW-club is interesting news for their readers. And since the author of the book “The cold Sun” is the highly respected Prof. Vahrenholt, the BILD-gunners have the best ammunition.
No matter what their intentions are, what only counts is the attack itself, which is highly unpleasant for Merkel.
Of course many persons will touch BILD only by using a nippers, because of the permanent mixture of blood, sex and gossip. But BILD is mighty.
It should be recognized that this is the first time that a big German newspaper attacks the climate panic group directly. Until now, we had only some articles against wind- and sunpower. So BILD has broken a taboo after all and we wonder if some other media will follow.
The author of “The cold Sun” was called a “Shell lobbyist” by some bloggers. But Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt has a longer course of life:
He studied Chemistry and worked first in the Umweltbundesamt Berlin (the federal environment agency). Between 1984 and 1990 he had a job in the environment agency of the city of Hamburg. From 1991 to 1997 he was senator (equal to a minister in a federal state) of this Hamburg environment agency. And he was a green politician with a high reputation. Then – 1998 – he joined indeed Shell AG, where he was member of the managing board until 2001 – and in 2001 he became member of the Shell supervisory board.
2001 was the year as he became head of the managing board of REpower Systems – an enterprise that constructed, sold and installed Windpower Systems of the megawatt-class.
Since 2007 he is heading RWE Innogy, the “green” branch of energy-giant RWE which produces Windpower-, Waterpower- and Bioenergy-Systems.
This impressive background gives him a high reputation – especially from the greens, who still feel that he is one of them, and right they are – and he is a well-known expert in the energy field and perhaps also the one that is respected most. This makes his attack so dangerous for Merkel.
Of course now his enemies (and earlier friends) will try to glue the stickers “Shell” and “RWE” on him.
The number of books sold will tell everybody whether the opinion in Germany about the climate policy is about to change.
Concerning the rats, which some think that they are leaving the sinking ship: I guess, these rats are already entering a new ship. Only the scientists are still fiddling on the upper deck.
Germany’s attempts at central planning of the energy supply are so reminiscent of Soviet central planning of the food supply, Chinese central planning of the steel supply, and so on.
It is painfully laughable to watch the nations of the western world repeat all the mistakes of last century’s communist-bloc countries, based on all the same theoretical fallacies refuted over and over and over again both in theory and practice.
Ludwig von Mises explained why these attempts fail and must fail. Absent the signals of profit and loss, there is no rational connection between the subjective wants that the masses of consumers are trying to satisfy, and the production of goods and services intended to satisfy them.
Since the possibility of free markets is ruled out from the very beginning, the only question becomes what government intervention should there be? But as all of such interventions have in common that their purpose is to displace market decision-making and the operations of profit and loss, the only possible outcome is the planned chaos that we are witnessing. Further government interventions cause further planned chaos, for which the only bruited solution is more interventions, and so on.
Thus we approach closer and closer to the final state of full state ownership and control of the means of production – a.k.a socialism. But, as Mises has shown, socialism is not viable in theory, let alone in practice: http://mises.org/pdf/econcalc.pdf “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth”.
Since the final state of socialism is non-viable, and must result in planned chaos, unlimited government, and massive abuses – which we are now witnessing – therefore every step towards that final state can only make matters worse.
The western world is sliding into fascism. Sometimes it seems we have forgotten the very idea of freedom. What will it take before *you* withdraw your consent?
Remember it here:
http://www.mises.org
http://www.lewrockwell.com
J. Jefferson says:
February 7, 2012 at 6:35 pm
The commies of yesteryear have to find employment SOMEWHERE. Unfortunately, they like to think they know how to run things, and they do. Right into the ground.
Maybe people will wake up in time, and maybe they won’t. We’ll keep goading, goading, goading…
@Doug Cotton says:
February 6, 2012 at 9:26 pm
Thanks for that reference to Claes Johnson. I had not seen him before, but visiting his web page is a real eye-opener, as he tears into the IPCC and its myrmidons in a variety of ways, slinging some heavy-duty math.
His Computational Blackbody Radiation found here:
http://www.csc.kth.se/~cgjoh/blackbodyslayer.pdf
seems to answer the question about why “back radiated” LWR won’t heat a warmer surface.
He says we don’t need no stinkin’ photons, the LWR can be dealt with as a wave, and this wave can be dissipated/reflected or otherwise handled by the Earth’s surface without causing it to heat. Now that’s heavy duty! He seasons this piquant discussion with quotes from Planck and Einstein showing that they didn’t really believe in the wave-particle duality of light, either.
@ur momisugly Günter Keil
Thank you for a most informative and valuable comment about Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt and Bild for those of us who are not familiar with German popular culture. It seems there are, as usual, trolls here who have been trying to confuse the picture.
People elect politicians – democracy is the science of the middle class minority subsidising the “needs” of the majority – this leads to bad government, because those that contribute the least have the most say because they are the majority. Hence the power problems because of the political nature of the elected governments and the priorities they have. Ireland has installed large amounts of wind power which is, as discussed in this article, a fickle power source. Consumers are having to pay supplements on their bills to compensate for the payments to wind generators. What happens when the wind dies? You need traditional power sources, hence the building of a power grid to Britain so that Ireland can take power from Britain when there is no wind, because the authorities have also been very short sighted and have not developed any further coal or oil powered generating stations. They have even de-commissioned existing coal and oil fired generating stations. What happens if the interconnect goes down – big problems!! Lots more gas turbine power generators need to be constructed. Time to install your own diesel generator.
@RockyRoad & others: The comparison of green policies, esp. the German model, with a planned economy is valid. But the Greens have nothing at all in common with socialists. Their ideological goal is “nature” or “the planet”, but not the well-being of the people, which, despite all its failure, communism is all about.
Historically, the green elites are middle class Westerners, and the profit models of their lobbies is very capitalistic, albeit not free market. The former communist nomenclatures of eastern Europe have nothing to do with the green movement. Environmentalism is quite weak there.
Even in Oz that’s gotta be a garbulary. I assume you’re trying to make an activity out of “flim-flam”. So that would be “flim flammery”. I’m slightly curious about what was in your mind when you wrote “fannery”, but please don’t explain.
anorak2 says:
February 8, 2012 at 12:04 am
Perhaps I mis-spoke regarding Greens being associated with communism/socialism in Germany (although I’ll bet if you looked really, really close it might surprise you), but here in the US, there is very tight association between the environmental movement and Marxist/Socialist accolytes in our current administration and most bureaucrats are in favor of “The Scam”.
That’s why November, 2012 can’t come soon enough.
(And that’s why any Republican currently running is excoriated for having any past association with “Global Warming”.)
The U.S. Democrat Party will use any means to retain power. Power to power their “state” and keep their huge pig snout in the tax payer filled hog trough.
Big lies, no problem. Once this fraud is undone, a new scare lie will be cooked up.
Vote no on them as long as it takes.
I was not surprised that the UK, Spain, Denmark and the other socialist countries could get themselves into such a pickle but I was surprised and disappointed that Germany could so completely give themselves and their future well-being over to a non-technical, hysterical mob of environmental activists. Thankfully, this highly technologically literate and pragmatic people have seen the idiocy and dishonesty of it all and with two newspaper articles and a book is turning the whole scam on its ear. There have been both books and newspaper articles in the UK as pointed as these but to very limited effect. The US is somewhere in between. They will get to where Germany is going, just a little slower – they, have had the most books and newspaper artilces to support overturning the despotic green coalition of media, politicians and universities but the consensus still has the upper hand. I was looking to China and India, of all places for saviours but now I believe Germany is going to save us weaker-kneed societies from it all.
Gary Pearse,
Shutting down nuclear power plants did not happened at a night. After Japanese nuke disaster, there were reportedly risks in the heart of Europe about some of the plants, so no way out except stopping production. Germans are doing well. Obviously it is a temporary decision. If you are the decision maker too, you would not accept the responsibility on continuation of high risk power plants, and specially in a country that you know there are applying high standards. Under such a condition and heavy protests against nuke energy, the government should have stop the high risk plants to save the standard plants go on production. This is not a political decision, they understood if they do not mind the high risk plants, then Europe must forget the nuke forever, and who can convince EU to support the nuke.