A couple of weeks ago I attended a media briefing organised by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. For those of you who are familiar with this nonprofit, don’t get shocked. It’s not like anyone is denying the oil and gas industry pollutes. But pollution as such is not the topic of this article. The topic of this article is promises.
Irina those in Brussels live in some faraway place so far out of reach of the people they need to be replaced. To be honest all of this could have been avoided if Ukraine would stop aspiring to be a NATO country. I am not going to get into who is bad and who is good in all of this as all of the players are bad.
I know many readers here hate fossil fuels but honestly until there is a reliable replacement (current solar and wind do not do it). I challenge every greenie here to research how much the production of our green technology pollutes this planet. Do not take me wrongly I am all for solutions to our dependency on fossil fuels. I am not for paying the government to basically breathe air. The EU is especially bad about selling this crap to their citizens. Larger corporations pay a fee and continue to pollute while we small folks suffer.
Thorium reactors may be a solution but governments want nuclear plants that can produce weapon grade material.
Unfortunately the current political paradigm just doesn't work except for the anointed corporates and billionaire class, as such no real or practical energy solutions are ever planned let alone enacted.
I was happy to see the problems couched in environmental terms as opposed climate concerns, I believe this is a critical and important distinction.
Can you imagine the impact of instead of the US and EU throwing tens of billions into the proxy wars, that money was used to fast track research and rollout of an open sourced cleaner energy storage solution(s)? It would solve so many of the existential renewable energy and environmental problems that our dear leaders are (supposedly) so concerned about.
Irena, I am enjoying your writing in both content and style if I had a way to send a small contribution I would but I don't use credit cards or payment systems on principle so I'm afraid a compliment and my appreciation of your work is all I can offer.
I wonder what COP27 will look like. Irina, Its the approach to emissions reductions that has brought the world to this point. And it didnt start today. Once they started cutting exploration budgets it became apparent that some form of energy strangulation was going to happen. The solution in my view will be to allow oil and gas while at the same time spending on R and D to improve carbon capture and storage technology. And also continue the buildup on renewables not to replace oil/gas but to complement it.
Irina, concur with your excellent piece here. We have to remember here too in the USA we have from the baby boomer generation and on, yes which is about everyone now alive in the states, are people who have always had indoor plumbing, electricity, running water, good health care, never really known hunger, real hunger, and always could find jobs quite easily. They really don't understand what it is like without their modern lifestyle (which is what oil and gas and coal has been giving them). Basically all spoon fed?! So, here we are? Keep most people happy! fire up the nuclear reactors, only option really to decarbonize and run our modern world.
Your conclusion stands out to this Resident of California, “Someone — some local political analyst or other — said earlier this year that many EU governments might not make it to the end of the year. And this is the best thing about what still passes for democracy: when you’ve had quite enough of the people who were supposed to make your life better, you get a chance to get rid of them. Unless they’re entrenched deep in the seats of power but that’s a whole other can of worms, to be opened some other time.”. Like you expect in Europe political headwinds are blowing hard in the USA with change expected in the November Mid Terms. Like Europe Sleepy Joe and team woke are bumbling there way on almost everything they do. They as you noted are attempting to blame Putin but the people by all accounts are seeing thru that false flag. The people also see the left caught up in so much hypocrisy on all issues it is not even funny. And people absolutely hate hypocrisy and hypocrites and they can see them from afar. The left seems blind to this fact.
I think Brussels is becoming a playground for politicians who aren't sure in which direction they want the EU and it's citizens to go. The situation as I see it is so confusing that our only hope is that things don't turn out so bad we have to protest our way down to Brussels demanding for answers.
This morning it was in the news that Russia cut gas to Finland for refusing to pay in Rubles. Earlier they had cut electricity supply. A YouTube video from Redacted talked about Sri Lanka in turmoil due to energy shortage and food shortage saying this is slowly spreading to other parts of the world.
Politicians might not feel the pinch in any of this, but you and I yes. And it is so disheartening to think that we simply have to do the biddings of these politicians who want us to switch over to renewables faster than the speed of light. But why the rush?
Dear Irina, there's many thing in this where I can agree with you, especially in your criticism of the Brussels leadership and their headless chicken-like attitude in dealing with this crisis. It is not an edifying sight, I can assure you. But the biggest problem - at least according to me - is what you term that the "EU has managed to transform itself into a pan-continental Church of Renewables". You can't throw a stone in Brussel and not hit a renewable lobbyist in the head. The REPowerEU has a separate strategy for solar, another one for hydrogen - and all of two sentences for nuclear power. To me, it looks like this crisis isn't that much of a crisis when the sinister influence of Germany still continues to lead Europe astray.
In any case, thank you for writing another very interesting and important piece.
Irina those in Brussels live in some faraway place so far out of reach of the people they need to be replaced. To be honest all of this could have been avoided if Ukraine would stop aspiring to be a NATO country. I am not going to get into who is bad and who is good in all of this as all of the players are bad.
I know many readers here hate fossil fuels but honestly until there is a reliable replacement (current solar and wind do not do it). I challenge every greenie here to research how much the production of our green technology pollutes this planet. Do not take me wrongly I am all for solutions to our dependency on fossil fuels. I am not for paying the government to basically breathe air. The EU is especially bad about selling this crap to their citizens. Larger corporations pay a fee and continue to pollute while we small folks suffer.
Thorium reactors may be a solution but governments want nuclear plants that can produce weapon grade material.
Unfortunately the current political paradigm just doesn't work except for the anointed corporates and billionaire class, as such no real or practical energy solutions are ever planned let alone enacted.
I was happy to see the problems couched in environmental terms as opposed climate concerns, I believe this is a critical and important distinction.
Can you imagine the impact of instead of the US and EU throwing tens of billions into the proxy wars, that money was used to fast track research and rollout of an open sourced cleaner energy storage solution(s)? It would solve so many of the existential renewable energy and environmental problems that our dear leaders are (supposedly) so concerned about.
Irena, I am enjoying your writing in both content and style if I had a way to send a small contribution I would but I don't use credit cards or payment systems on principle so I'm afraid a compliment and my appreciation of your work is all I can offer.
I wonder what COP27 will look like. Irina, Its the approach to emissions reductions that has brought the world to this point. And it didnt start today. Once they started cutting exploration budgets it became apparent that some form of energy strangulation was going to happen. The solution in my view will be to allow oil and gas while at the same time spending on R and D to improve carbon capture and storage technology. And also continue the buildup on renewables not to replace oil/gas but to complement it.
Irina, concur with your excellent piece here. We have to remember here too in the USA we have from the baby boomer generation and on, yes which is about everyone now alive in the states, are people who have always had indoor plumbing, electricity, running water, good health care, never really known hunger, real hunger, and always could find jobs quite easily. They really don't understand what it is like without their modern lifestyle (which is what oil and gas and coal has been giving them). Basically all spoon fed?! So, here we are? Keep most people happy! fire up the nuclear reactors, only option really to decarbonize and run our modern world.
Your conclusion stands out to this Resident of California, “Someone — some local political analyst or other — said earlier this year that many EU governments might not make it to the end of the year. And this is the best thing about what still passes for democracy: when you’ve had quite enough of the people who were supposed to make your life better, you get a chance to get rid of them. Unless they’re entrenched deep in the seats of power but that’s a whole other can of worms, to be opened some other time.”. Like you expect in Europe political headwinds are blowing hard in the USA with change expected in the November Mid Terms. Like Europe Sleepy Joe and team woke are bumbling there way on almost everything they do. They as you noted are attempting to blame Putin but the people by all accounts are seeing thru that false flag. The people also see the left caught up in so much hypocrisy on all issues it is not even funny. And people absolutely hate hypocrisy and hypocrites and they can see them from afar. The left seems blind to this fact.
I think Brussels is becoming a playground for politicians who aren't sure in which direction they want the EU and it's citizens to go. The situation as I see it is so confusing that our only hope is that things don't turn out so bad we have to protest our way down to Brussels demanding for answers.
This morning it was in the news that Russia cut gas to Finland for refusing to pay in Rubles. Earlier they had cut electricity supply. A YouTube video from Redacted talked about Sri Lanka in turmoil due to energy shortage and food shortage saying this is slowly spreading to other parts of the world.
Politicians might not feel the pinch in any of this, but you and I yes. And it is so disheartening to think that we simply have to do the biddings of these politicians who want us to switch over to renewables faster than the speed of light. But why the rush?
Dear Irina, there's many thing in this where I can agree with you, especially in your criticism of the Brussels leadership and their headless chicken-like attitude in dealing with this crisis. It is not an edifying sight, I can assure you. But the biggest problem - at least according to me - is what you term that the "EU has managed to transform itself into a pan-continental Church of Renewables". You can't throw a stone in Brussel and not hit a renewable lobbyist in the head. The REPowerEU has a separate strategy for solar, another one for hydrogen - and all of two sentences for nuclear power. To me, it looks like this crisis isn't that much of a crisis when the sinister influence of Germany still continues to lead Europe astray.
In any case, thank you for writing another very interesting and important piece.