Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

Xyls
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Germany fires up coal plants to avert gas shortage as Russia cuts supply

https://www.ft.com/content/f662a412-9eb ... de5ff622e2

But Germany won't keep their nuclear plants, open. No way better to pollute the environment even more then do the sensible thing.

----

Germany's Greens:

Shut down great source of 0 emissions energy (nuclear), due to anti-nuclear extremism. Cause German C02 emissions to surge.

So eco-friendly!
weatheriscool
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Germany will fire up coal plants again in an effort to save natural gas.
Source: New York Times
BERLIN — Germany will restart coal-fired power plants in order to conserve natural gas, the country’s economy minister announced on Sunday, amid concerns about a looming supply shortage after Russia cut gas deliveries to Europe this week.

The move was part of a series of measures, including new incentives for companies to burn less natural gas, announced by Germany as Europe takes steps to deal with reduced energy supplies from Russia.

Since European countries imposed sanctions to punish Moscow following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Russia has responded by cutting off gas supplies to several European countries. Last week, the Russian energy giant Gazprom also reduced flows through the Nord

,,,snip...

“The situation is serious,” Robert Habeck, the economy minister who is also Germany’s vice chancellor, said in a statement on Sunday, laying out the steps that would be taken to ensure that more gas is available to divert into storage so the country has enough to get through the winter. They include bringing back online coal-fired power plants that had been drawn down to reduce carbon emissions, although the statement did not specify how many plants would be affected.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/19/worl ... lants.html

Awesome. They all need to be fired up and we also need to drill big time.
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wjfox
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weatheriscool wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:55 pm
Awesome. They all need to be fired up and we also need to drill big time.
This is borderline trolling. Unless you are being sarcastic.

Europe is going through a massive and devastating heatwave right now, such events will get worse and worse in the future, and you think we need to dramatically boost carbon emissions?

Also, it's bizarre that you post hundreds and hundreds of news stories, articles, and studies, clearly showing the impacts of climate change, and yet you're simultaneously a massive supporter of fossil fuels. Just totally bizarre.
weatheriscool
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Post by weatheriscool »

wjfox wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 10:03 am
weatheriscool wrote: Sun Jun 19, 2022 11:55 pm
Awesome. They all need to be fired up and we also need to drill big time.
This is borderline trolling. Unless you are being sarcastic.

Europe is going through a massive and devastating heatwave right now, such events will get worse and worse in the future, and you think we need to dramatically boost carbon emissions?

Also, it's bizarre that you post hundreds and hundreds of news stories, articles, and studies, clearly showing the impacts of climate change, and yet you're simultaneously a massive supporter of fossil fuels. Just totally bizarre.

I am a supporter of low humane prices that don't hurt the poor and which I am disabled. It must be nice to be rich as you're to afford 10 dollar gas and two thousand dollar rent/month. It is called being heartless and cruel. :x I realize that we need to do something, but we have carbon capture that if developed would allow us to continue to be humane instead of just focusing on the rich(even if they're green!). We also have nuclear, hydro, and yes wind and solar that we could slowly expand. What we really need to do is to invest in fusion and get that online. Maybe we should stop going to war for two fucking months and invest in a few hundred billion dollars/euro/or what ever forcing it over the edge so we can finally do something about climate change and fucking not destroy the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings. We can have our cake in eat it too. If we ever wish to be the species that controls our climate, goes to the stars and generally can improve ourselves maybe we should fucking act like it?
weatheriscool
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Last month, China imported more Russian crude oil than ever before
Source: WaPo

China’s imports of Russian crude oil hit a record in May, as Chinese buyers take advantage of discounted prices after Beijing’s pledge to continue normal economic ties with Moscow despite the geopolitical fallout over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

A year-over-year rise of 55 percent in May, to 8.42 million metric tons, meant Russian imports overtook those from Saudi Arabia to become China’s largest single source of crude for the month, according to data from Chinese customs released on Friday. In April, Saudi oil accounted for 21 percent of China’s total imports, compared with 15 percent for Russian-sourced fuel, according to an analysis from Cinda Securities.

Over the first 100 days of the war in Ukraine, China became the world’s leading buyer of Russian fossil fuels, as many Western nations cut back on purchases to impose economic costs on the Kremlin for invading.

The recent increase in imports is a reversal of a period of low purchases immediately after Russia invaded, when Chinese buyers remained cautious about the risks of being sanctioned.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... l-exports/
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Britain’s largest butterfly at risk as fungal pathogens kill food source
Wed 22 Jun 2022

Image

Britain’s largest butterfly may be at risk from fungal pathogens that have caused a drastic die-back of the rare plant on which its caterpillars feed.

The swallowtail is only found breeding at 16 sites in Britain, all on the Norfolk Broads, where milk parsley grows. But last summer more than 90% of the milk parsley plants at one of its breeding sites wilted and died, preventing the plant from setting seed. If milk parsley disappears, the unique subspecies of the swallowtail found in Britain will become extinct.

The “milk parsley droop”, which may be caused by a known fungal pathogen combining in a novel way with another pathogen, was spotted on Wheatfen nature reserve near Norwich. Nature reserve managers across the Broads are now on high alert for signs of the disease spreading this year, with the wilt typically taking hold in July and August.

Mark Collins, the chair of the Swallowtail and Birdwing Butterfly Trust, said: “This is not an unknown pathogen but it has knocked the milk parsley population at Wheatfen by six. These pathogens are subject to the natural population dynamics and in a normal wild situation this wouldn’t be a problem because the swallowtail and the milk parsley would be in other places but there are only 16 swallowtail breeding sites left and these spots are increasingly isolated in a very agricultural landscape. We are worried.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ood-source
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weatheriscool
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Biden calls for three-month federal gas tax "holiday"

UPDATED ON: JUNE 22, 2022 / 11:09 AM / CBS/AP
Washington — President Joe Biden called on Congress Wednesday to suspend federal gasoline and diesel taxes for three months — an idea that's intended to ease financial pressures at the pump, but that also reveals the political toxicity of high gas prices in an election year.

He is also urging states to suspend their own gas taxes or provide similar relief, the White House said.

The White House said in a release, "The price of gas is up dramatically around the world, and by almost $2 per gallon in America, since (Russian President Vladimir) Putin began amassing troops on the border of Ukraine."

{snip}
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gax-tax-ho ... -congress/
weatheriscool
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Despite improvements, China's air remains unsafe
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-china-air-unsafe.html
by Saima Sidik, American Geophysical Union
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone exposure are major public health problems in China. Although useful, atmospheric models used to analyze these and other air quality concerns over the years are expensive to run, limiting how often researchers can use them.

Published in GeoHealth, new results from Conibear et al worked around this limitation by training machine learning algorithms to find associations between the inputs and outputs of atmospheric models. The researchers then used the algorithms to analyze emission levels and the origins of those emissions from 2010 to 2020.

They found that efforts to reduce PM2.5 emissions are working in China. Average PM2.5 levels across the country have dropped from their peak of 52.8 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m3) in 2012 to 33.5 mg/m3 in 2020. The change brings PM2.5 levels from about 10 times above the World Health Organization's (WHO) guideline to about seven times the guideline. The authors discovered that the biggest drops in PM2.5 generation occurred in the industrial and residential sectors. Improvements in transportation, agriculture, and power generation also played small roles.

Although PM2.5 levels appear to have reached a peak in 2012 and then declined—a trend supported by on-the-ground observations—the situation with ozone is a bit more complicated. The researchers' models suggest that ozone levels have dropped since 2015, but on-the-ground measurements show a sharp increase. This discrepancy may be the result of imperfections in simulations, according to the authors.
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Island of wet wipes has 'changed the course of the Thames' as government considers ban
Friday 24 June 2022

An island the size of two tennis courts has "changed the course" of the River Thames - and it's made from wet wipes.

Campaigners regularly comb through the muck on the riverbank near Hammersmith Bridge, where they find up to 150 wet wipes per square metre.

The UK uses 11 billion of the "disposable" products every year, according to Labour MP Fleur Anderson, causing untold problems for the environment and wreaking havoc on plumbing to the tune of £100m in blockages.

The government is considering a ban on wet wipes, but Ms Anderson wants the issue resolved faster, and has tabled legislation to bring it about.

It comes after Boots pledged to stop selling all wet wipes containing plastic by the end of the year.
https://news.sky.com/story/island-of-we ... n-12639847
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