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According to the AP, NY Times and a boat load of other AP carriers, the country boasting the loudest about how much of their energy needs are fulfilled by renewable sources, coal may be about to win out over one of the oldest forests still standing in Germany:
BERLIN (AP) — A court in western Germany says an ancient forest near the Belgian border can be chopped down to make way for a coal strip mine.
Cologne's administrative court ruled Friday against a legal complaint brought by the environmental group BUND that wanted to halt the clearance of much of the Hambach forest.
Hambach forest has become a focus of environmental protests against the expansion of a vast mine that supplies much of the coal used in nearby power plants.
The coal, a light brown variety called lignite, is considered one of the most polluting forms of fossil fuel.
Meanwhile their reactors are being systematically shut down and dismantled. But dirty coal use shows almost no decline.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Sunday November 26 2017, @03:30PM
If you mean why Germany is undertaking its Energiewende, part of it is concern about climate change, part of it is political in the sense the Greens have become a more influential party, and part of it is strategic. The first two are no mystery, but the last might need some explanation.
Back when things were heating up between Russia and Ukraine Ukraine got most of its winter heat from Russian natural gas supplied by a pipeline. Ukraine hadn't paid its energy bill and was claiming all of the Black Sea fleet left over from the Soviet Union. So Russia decided to put the hurt on Ukraine by cutting off the natgas in winter so all its people would freeze.
But as with many things in life there are consequences to actions like that, and the consequence here was that Germany and Poland and others in Central Europe also relied quite a bit on the gas from that pipeline in winter, so they all got to freeze too. Consequently the Germans resolved to move everything to renewables so they wouldn't suffer that again. Now Russia is selling far less gas than they had been, which means their little stunt with Ukraine has massively backfired on their pocketbook.
For Germany there have been other positive externalities of moving to renewables. They're developing serious renewable know-how. That too will wind up reducing their dependence on other fossil fuels like coal and oil, so Russia gets to lose three times on that deal.
Washington DC delenda est.