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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 12 2020, @06:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the did-you-check-to-turn-the-lights-off dept.

Germany's economy nowadays emits as much carbon dioxide as it did in the 1950s, when it was 10 times smaller.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), carbon dioxide emissions trends for 2019 suggest clean energy transitions are underway. Global power sector emissions declined by some 170 Mt, or 1.2%, with the biggest falls taking place in the advanced economies of the European Union, Japan and the United States. There, CO2 emissions are now at levels not seen since the late 1980s, when electricity demand was one-third lower.

In these advanced economies, the average CO2 emissions intensity of electricity generation declined by nearly 6.5% in 2019. This is a rate three times faster than the average over the past decade.

This decline is driven by a switch from coal to natural gas, a rise in nuclear power and weaker electricity demand, combined with the seemingly unstoppable growth in renewables. These now constitute over 40% of the energy mix in Germany (wind power +11%) and the United Kingdom, where rapid expansion in offshore wind power generation is happening.

The bummer lies with the rest of the world.

There emissions continue to expand with close to 400 Mt last year. About 80% of that increase is happening in Asia. Coal demand here continues to expand, accounting for over 50% of energy use.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:11PM (13 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:11PM (#957462)

    Maybe it shouldn't surprise me after 3 years, but I still find it weird when I read comments from people defending Trump.

    Instead of being embarrassed that he leads your country, you want more of him.

    It is odd that there are people stupid enough to think he is anything more than a criminal, but clever enough to operate a computer.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Interesting=1, Informative=2, Total=3
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:25PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 12 2020, @11:25PM (#957475)

    So say we all

  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 13 2020, @01:18AM (7 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 13 2020, @01:18AM (#957522) Journal

    They're doing their damndest to disqualify themselves from the human race for shoving. They've immolated their own souls in the red-hot (and orange-hued, and rather tiny...) hands of their chosen Moloch-idol. I have given up on them; they are no longer using reason, and to reason with one who has abandoned its use is to feed medicine to a corpse.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday February 13 2020, @01:53AM (6 children)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Thursday February 13 2020, @01:53AM (#957535)

      Unfortunately it looks like enough Americans want to have King again.

      Or maybe they're voting for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party because they think the leopards won't eat their face too.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:20AM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:20AM (#957554) Journal

        There's no one single motivation for all of them but those are two of the big ones, the second more so/more commonly than the first IMO. Idiots. The world they create is a dead end; the living will envy the deceased.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @03:25AM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @03:25AM (#957581)

        Remember he lost the popular vote. To HRC. And she stole the nomination. If Trump wins 2020 then that means they defrauded the democratic process. Y'know, like a traitor would. It would be bad in just about every way possible.

        • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:22AM (3 children)

          by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:22AM (#957599)

          If Trump wins 2020 then that means they defrauded the democratic process.

          Sorry, no. The popular vote thing is really irrelevant, because that's not how the Presidential election is decided in the US. (I'm not advocating for the Electoral College BTW.) It's entirely possible for the same thing to happen this year, because voters in rural states have more power in this election, by design.

          What the Democrats really should have done back in 2008 when they had control of Congress was create a new Constitutional Amendment fixing that mess. They might not have gotten enough states to ratify it, but once it's passed, it never goes away, just waiting for states to ratify it, as the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) has done (it was passed decades ago, but never ratified by enough states; it only needs a few now).

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:48AM (2 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:48AM (#957602)

            Yes I know, but he barely won the EC last time and now people know what he is. Of course he'll still get the evangelical vote, but pair those things together and the only way he wins is with election fraud. The GOP pretty blatantly stole the election in 2000, and it is arguable they did the same thing again paired with a massive misinformation social media campaign. Oh right, the GOP using their senate majority to block any election security bills.

            My point stands except for people who don't want to lose the little bit of faith in the system they have left. Sanders will win with a massive lead that all the cheating can't stop without being excessively obvious.

            • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:09PM (1 child)

              by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:09PM (#957709) Journal

              Sanders will win with a massive lead that all the cheating can't stop without being excessively obvious.

              It's interesting that you're presuming Sanders will win when Buttigieg is basically tied with him for delegates now. I think Bernie has the most enthusiastic support, and ironically he is winning the popular vote but not the most delegates, but the DNC will do whatever it can to block him. It's not just the presidency at stake, but all the down-ticket races in Congress and state houses that stand to suffer losses if Bernie is at the top of the ticket. The DNC, per James Carville a couple days ago, sees Bernie's rise as the "end of days."

              However it pans out ultimately, one half of the Democratic party will not show up to vote if the "wrong" guy wins the nomination. If it goes to a brokered convention and the super delegates coronate somebody crazy like Hillary, nobody will show up to vote and the Democratic party will summarily implode.

              --
              Washington DC delenda est.
              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:54PM

                by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:54PM (#957760)

                If both parties get demolished and we end up with a bunch of new ones then GOOD.

                In the meantime, you Faux Democrats should really spend more effort educating the MAGhatters. Would be something actually useful.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @03:54AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 13 2020, @03:54AM (#957592)

    Trump beat everybody to get into the Whitehouse.
    There are three possibilities.
    1/ He is a moron who was put in place by puppet-masters who rule from the shadows.
    2/ He is a mostly average sort of guy who got lucky that his skills in reading the crowd and trolling his opponents took him all the way.
    3/ He is some kind of 3D chess playing mastermind who can beat everyone, and has already factored in the likely responses to every outrageous thing he does.

    Examine the results of each.
    1/ He is an excellent example of a Beeblebrox president. He was put in place to distract you, and his antics have no real consequences beyond distracting you from said puppet-masters. People like DeathMonkey and his cohort actually help Trump's masters by incessantly banging their drums and screaming "look at the distraction".

    2/ He is an average guy, who probably wants to do the best for his country, but doesn't really know what that is. He makes simplistic decisions, that look right to him but might have unforeseen consequences. He reacts to the "two-minute hate" by treating it as the mindlessness it is, and hence is mostly manipulated by those who remain calm and explain their proposals. The screamers are ignored, their goals are disregarded, and they hurt their own cases by giving him every reason to oppose them. He also thinks the "two-minute-haters" are a bunch af assholes, and gets his own back by trolling them.

    3/ He can see the results of his actions better than you. You can judge his motivations, and decide whether he is pro- or anti- USA, but you are not competent to judge his methods.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:26AM (2 children)

      by Grishnakh (2831) on Thursday February 13 2020, @04:26AM (#957600)

      AFAICT, he's somewhat incompetent at actually running things (his own business forays have never done that well), but is pretty clever at "reading the crowd" and figured out what would "sell" to the voting public. Then, he was assisted greatly by the Democratic Party shooting itself in the foot with a shotgun. This isn't completely unprecedented; populist politicians have been around for a very long time, which is why we have the term "populist" for this context. Andrew Jackson comes to mind as a prior President who resembled Trump in many ways.

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:16PM (1 child)

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday February 13 2020, @02:16PM (#957712) Journal

        Nearly all politicians are incompetent at running things.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Grishnakh on Friday February 14 2020, @01:19AM

          by Grishnakh (2831) on Friday February 14 2020, @01:19AM (#957969)

          I'm not so sure about that. I really don't like some of the things China does (concentration camps, artificial military islands, etc.), but I have to admit their political leadership seems to actually know what it's doing. The amount that country has improved economically over the past 30 years is just amazing.