German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet has agreed on a comprehensive package to slash Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent before 2020.
The multi-billion-euro plan calls for more energy efficiency, a greater use of renewable energy and new insulation standards for buildings. The program is designed to limit additional financial burdens on consumers, who are ultimately supposed to benefit from a reduction in energy use.
Another goal of the plan is to rely on renewable energy sources or highly efficient heat and power plants to generate half of the country’s total power needs by 2020. The generation of heat from renewable sources is also to increase from 6 percent to 14 percent…
Germany is the world’s sixth largest emitter of greenhouse gases and Europe’s biggest polluter. The country accounts for 3.19 percent of the world’s total output of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the DPA news agency…
The total cost of the new measures is estimated to be around 31 billion euros ($45.5 billion), while energy savings are supposed to amount to around 36 billion euros by 2020.
Germany’s coalition government is essentially a conservative and centrist amalgam. Yet, traditional standards of responsibility – not only to fiscal questions; but, those of conservation and future needs – haven’t been cast aside as they have in the United States.
Once more, people like Teddy Roosevelt aren’t welcome in the Republican Party.
Im waiting for someone to come up with the idea, to place Magnets on the bottom of cars, and install Copper wiring threw the freeways, to generate LARGE coils to make electricity…
ECA – Your electricity generation idea won’t work, since inducing electricity in a coil produces a counterforce that would mean that the car would have to expend more energy moving forward, and cars are notoriously inefficient.
But really, the Bush administration is all talk and no action. They talk about liberating America from foreign oil dependency, yet in seven years have done absolutely NOTHING to decrease dependency. Could it be that George is too busy servicing the Saudi King’s manhood?
If you foolishly believe Bush and the conservatives, expect that this effort will crash the German economy.
My guess is that by leading this effort, Germany will be at the technological forefront of a new green industry.
And ONCE AGAIN, sucky, trailing-edge, myopic conservative philosophy will make losers out of America.
The cost of this is going to hit someone, and the people footing the bill are usually the ones creating wealth at a blue collar job. (“The poor get poorer, the rich take a private jet to Bali so they can blame the poor for global warming.”)
“Renewable energy sources”, eh? Wood is a renewable fuel, and carbon nuetral as well. Let’s clear cut Brazil and ship the wood by steam boat to Europe and the US to burn.
I cannot quite put my finger on it, but I suspect there’s a few draw backs to that approach.
Hacks normally can’t get over the big tent theory. This is normal behavior.
My state, the reddist of red with a Republican governor, has committed to a 20% reduction in CO2 by 2015. (Which proves that it isn’t just liberal Democrats that have bought into this idiocy.)
I attended a meeting with the governor’s appointed chairman of the greenhouse gas taskforce, who explained this new initiative to industry reps. As the representative from my company, I could not express myself as I wished and attack the “science” behind the proposal. No, I had to limit my comments to only the proposal itself.
“Excuse me Doctor, but isn’t our state’s energy consumption growing at 2% a year?”
“Well, yes.”
“So, in eight years, we could expect a 16% increase in energy needs by the citizens of this state. Couple that with your 20% percent CO2 reduction, and what we are really talking about is more than a third of our energy coming from renewables . . . in eight years. Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?”
To paraphrase her response: “Oh, but we can get there through conservation, carbon credits, and financial incentives for industry and private citizens.”
What I wanted to say: “ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS OR JUST STUPID?”
What I was constrained to say: “Thank you.”
And that is my own personal example of how this idiocy continues to move ahead. People who know better cannot pay the political and financial price needed to stand up to the Gore jaggernaut. We know we are being suckered, but are powerless to stop it.
In ten years there will be enough evidence gathered that everyone will know the GW alarmists were liars. But by then their agenda will be so entrenched in our laws and policies that it won’t matter.
Phillep said, >> The cost of this is going to hit someone, and the people footing the bill are usually the ones creating wealth at a blue collar job.
However, when there are big economic paradigm shifts, it often gives smaller innovators an edge over big dinosaur institutions.
When cars were new, many manufacturers were smaller garages. Similarly, during the advent of high tech, many people started businesses in garages, too.
Eventually, of course, there is a shake out and the big guys win.
MY point is that Bush and the conservatives claim America can’t go green because it will sink us financially with a burden on business.
I am predicting that Germany’s going green will actually put them ahead in business, with America playing catch-up.
It goes to the Achilles heel of conservatism — they are always looking backward and clinging to old paradigms. It makes them horrible leaders into the future.
So I guess what you’re saying is that American car companies and other companies are just passing up profits because they are desperate to pollute.
>>So I guess what you’re saying is that
>>American car companies and other companies
>>are just passing up profits because they
>>are desperate to pollute.
Or maybe they’re passing up profits because they’re intelligence-challenged ideologues, unable to admit that the long-haired hippy pinko fags were right. After all, that wouldn’t sit to well with Heart Attack Cheney’s energy cabal, would it?
#6 – I live in a state that’s still bleeding also…
I’m not a rocket scientist so, I would really like to understand wtf you’re talking/posting about ?
We’ve just gotten a little rain/thunderstorm here and are expecting a major blizzard this weekend. This is December. I don’t live in Florida dude and we haven’t had a normal winter in 6 years.
My brother has lived in Alaska for over 30 years and has many fine pictures of glaciers that no longer exsist. I’ve seen these pictures and I’ve visited Alaska a few times.
I often threw snowballs in Glacier Park, Montana in July. Operative word is the past tense version of “throw”. I think one could manage a mudball now but, only if they get some rain and that ain’t too often anymore.
What part of GW alarmist is phony ? What part of GW is phony ?
I like seeing different perspectives of what appears obvious to me; helps maintain an open mind because I have often been shown that the obvious is often not quite all there is on the subject at hand..?
Germany can afford to do this, and also have a National Health Insurance Plan. Meanwhile, as the US Congress proposes to call for a stricter fuel efficiency standard by 2020, Bush threatens to veto it. He’s all over these “future laws”, when they might inconvenience his oil and automakin buddies. But Bush can’t seem to do anything right about today’s regular problems.
BTW, Iraq and Afghanistan both have Universal Health Care, funded by US Taxpayers as part of the war. Why can’t we all have UHC as part of this damn war?!! It would probably be a much shorter war, then.
#10. “We’ve just gotten a little rain/thunderstorm here and are expecting a major blizzard this weekend. This is December. I don’t live in Florida dude and we haven’t had a normal winter in 6 years.”
What do you mean by “normal”? In my youth, normal was a winter with 3 weeks of temperatures below 10 deg F and at least a week of below zero. Of course, in my youth all the talk was of the coming ice age. During the 90’s, we had winters when the temperature never dipped below 10 deg F. Yet, the last two winters were similiar to those of my youth. So define “normal.”
“My brother has lived in Alaska for over 30 years and has many fine pictures of glaciers that no longer exsist. I’ve seen these pictures and I’ve visited Alaska a few times.
I often threw snowballs in Glacier Park, Montana in July. Operative word is the past tense version of “throw”. I think one could manage a mudball now but, only if they get some rain and that ain’t too often anymore.
What part of GW alarmist is phony ? What part of GW is phony ?”
The part that says we caused it. There is lots of evidence that shows warming is occuring; there is none that show it is caused by increasing atmospheric CO2 levels.
NONE.
I like seeing different perspectives of what appears obvious to me; helps maintain an open mind because I have often been shown that the obvious is often not quite all there is on the subject at hand..?
I guess this plan is one way to get greens to support nuclear power. Barring that, I imagine the results will be the same as the rest of Europe. Implement a carbon reduction plan, and end up increasing emissions while the US reduces them.
>>So I guess what you’re saying is that American
>>car companies and other companies are just
>>passing up profits because they are desperate
>>to pollute.
No, they’re being paid to pollute. By Heart Attack Cheney’s Energy Cabal. Because it’s easier and cheaper to pay them off than to reduce our oil addiction by letting them develop low-gas-consumption cars.
Does tha make sense to you, Mikie?
Smith – Not trying for the last word –
I’ve read mucho on each side as to who’s to blame for global warming, a term that would appear to be in use by the majority of published reports from scientists involved with research in this field and I can only conclude that it is completely irrelevant as to who is to blame but, it is very relevant that we determine how we are to survive in the increasingly near future based upon the increasingly rapid changes to our worlds’ climate. I think an ie; we’re running short of time is appropriate, increasingly so..