Tuesday, July 30, 2019

German Greens fighting new "green" power projects

Last week I posted about how wind farms are decimating wildlife, from insects to bats to birds to eagles, because environmentalists are ignoring the problem.  It seems that this is not true in Germany, of all places:
The expansion of wind power in the first half of this year collapsed to its lowest level since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) in 2000. All in all, just 35 wind turbines were build with an output of 231 megawatts. “This corresponds to a decline of 82 percent compared to the already weak period of the previous year”, according to the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) in Berlin.

“This makes one nearly speechless,” said Matthias Zelinger at the presentation of the data. The managing director of the Power Systems division of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) spoke of a “blow to the guts of the energy turnaround”. This actual development doesn’t match “at all to the current climate protection debate”.

...

The most important cause lies in the legal resistance of wildlife and forest conservationists fighting new wind farms. The BWE President referred to an industry survey of the onshore wind agency. According to its findings, more than 70 percent of the legal objections are based on species conservation, especially the threat to endangered bird species and bats.
Well done to the German environmentalists for holding to their principles.  I've been very hard on the environmental movement in the past, mostly because the rampant hypocrisy so often on display.  But not here.  Anyone who loves the outdoors can applaud this victory, whether you believe in man made global warming or not.

And today is a twofer in non-hypocritical environmentalist news:
Greta Thunberg to sail Atlantic for climate conferences

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has accepted a ride across the Atlantic by boat to attend two key climate conferences.

The teenager will make the journey aboard the Malizia II, a high-speed 18-metre (60ft) yacht built to race around the globe.

“We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to New York in mid August,” she tweeted.

Thunberg refuses to fly because of the environmental impact of air travel.
Miss Thunberg is a bit of a social media sensation in Scandinavia.  She and I clearly disagree on whether mankind is causing the heat death of the planet, but good for her sticking to her principles.  She has chosen a very inconvenient (and quite frankly pretty uncomfortable) alternative transportation mode to keep from being a hypocrite on the subject.  In this she is seemingly unique among all the world's climate activists - none of them have given up jet travel to climate conferences.  Thunberg is showing everyone that it really isn't easy being Green, but being Green is exactly what she is being.
And a little child shall lead them.
- Isaiah 11:6
Bravo to Miss Thunberg.  The kids are all right.  Maybe wrong, but all right.

11 comments:

Old NFO said...

Concur. on Thunberg. Re the wind turbines, they are a massive failure everywhere, and one of the reasons here that those 'companies' go out of business every 10 years, when their tax breaks die.

SiGraybeard said...

I understand there's a good-sized market for "F*ck Greta" bumper stickers in Germany.

Being a racing boat, I'd be cautious about saying it's really "green" compared to a boat made from tree parts. Sailing is undoubtedly inconvenient compared to flying and it might well be a painful experience but a modern racing yacht has lots of plastic and other things that really raise its carbon footprint.

The fact she's the only one doing it is noteworthy, though.

Dan said...

A racing boat to cross the Atlantic? I can only assume young Miss Thunberg has wealthy parents.

LSP said...

Germans are notoriously thorough. Then there's the WHO.

https://youtu.be/afam2nIae4o

tiredWeasel said...

Greta doesn't do cr*p. She's a teenage autistic girl that likes the "environment". It's her parents that milk her and use her as a cash cow.
The people who claim to have met her by chance before her and helped her to her "breakthrough" have known the family for years - not surprising, given that the Thunbergs are well connected progressives.

It's one big PR-campaign. A swedish newspaper did an interesting in-depth research about Greta and her parents and the people pulling the strings in the background. It's child abuse, simple as that. It's not Greta, she's just a mascot.

tiredWeasel said...

An re german enviromentalists... it's not wrong, you know - but it's not right, either. It's correct.

Two points: The subsidies are running out in germany. It just does not pay anymore to build windmills.
And regarding the claim in the article: windmills are held to much lower standards than other building projects in germany - it's a kind of second hand subsidisation - and so it's possible for a windpark to get build despite conservational concerns while any other building project would be bogged down for years or be impossible to build.

Borepatch said...

tiredWeasel, she may be a nutter but she is at least consistent here. Credit where it's due.

tiredWeasel said...

Borepatch, I know what you mean but I honestly don't think she has much say in the matter. She's beeing handled and pushed around by a team of PR-professionals. Of course we might not agree but I've seen and heard enough of this dog and pony show in the last months. It's a childrens crusade, she's the martyr carying the banner.

Rick C said...

If the German enviroloons want to starve in the dark, that's actually fine by me, but I wish they'd stop trying to take the rest of us with them.

Ted said...

Cross the Atlantic in a 60 foot racing sailboat.. Yeah that's what I want to do. A modern racing Sailboat has all the amenities of a Port_A_Potty without any of the fine fit and finish. You'll dine on a vast selection of freeze dried food hastily prepared in your plastic bowl ( Don't lose it - one per passenger.) Your Cabin IS the same as everyone else … because there are none. But at least you'll be able to sleep in a pipe berth still warm from the last passenger, assuming you can sleep. It's a bit noisy since there is no sound deadening insulation. and bring warm clothes because the North Atlantic is never warm no matter what the season. At least going west to east is mostly dryer and not into the wind. Did I mention Icebergs and Hurricanes??? I think I'd want something bigger than 60 foot and NOT captained by an Autistic teenager.

Ted said...

OH.. Wait UK to New York??? Into the Wind ??? in August???? at the beginning of Hurricane Season. Forget about sleep …. Think long and hard about just survival.