this post was submitted on 01 May 2026
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Climate

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Discussion of climate, how it is changing, activism around that, the politics, and the energy systems change we need in order to stabilize things.

As a starting point, the burning of fossil fuels, and to a lesser extent deforestation and release of methane are responsible for the warming in recent decades: Graph of temperature as observed with significant warming, and simulated without added greenhouse gases and other anthropogentic changes, which shows no significant warming

How much each change to the atmosphere has warmed the world: IPCC AR6 Figure 2 - Thee bar charts: first chart: how much each gas has warmed the world.  About 1C of total warming.  Second chart:  about 1.5C of total warming from well-mixed greenhouse gases, offset by 0.4C of cooling from aerosols and negligible influence from changes to solar output, volcanoes, and internal variability.  Third chart: about 1.25C of warming from CO2, 0.5C from methane, and a bunch more in small quantities from other gases.  About 0.5C of cooling with large error bars from SO2.

Recommended actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the near future:

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[–] parson0@startrek.website 0 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Fuck nuclear... it accounted for 6% of the energy mix (-ish.. taking this number from memory) and we still don't know what to do with the waste. Also it creates further dependence on acquiring uranium from Russia. So no, that did not make as big of an impact as many think.

[–] dracc@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Why was it 6%? Was it because you decided 30 or so years ago that you should stop with nuclear instead of servicing your plants? Seeing as you import loads of coal, oil and nuclear power from all over Europe, maybe your electrical system isn't as green as you seemingly love to claim? (You're far from the first German I've spoken to about this topic whom held the same position)

[–] parson0@startrek.website 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Not sure who you're yelling at, your communication style is unnecessarily confrontational. I am rarely aligned with what the German government does, nor was I involved in any of the decision making. But I do believe that nuclear has no long term future, especially if we need to import uranium from abroad, specifically Russia.

Well maintained plants might be safe, but we see how every summer several need to be throttled down because cooling water is running out. Noone has figured out where we put the waste, in classic human fashion we bury it in the ground and hope someone will figure it out before that becomes its own disaster.

I don't claim Germany has green energy, yet it made some significant progress in the past decade. Despite most governments repeatedly making the worst possible decisions. Like crippling the solar industry in the east or handing our tax money over to big oil and gas. Admittedly having to import most of our solar panels from China isn't great either, but I prefer a once of purchase over a subscription.

[–] dracc@discuss.tchncs.de -2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I'm bothered because your policies have fucked up my electrical bill. Nowadays it's €200 a month in the summer and €1200 in the winter. Used to be €200 in the coldest months when there's -20C, basically no sunshine and no wind to speak of. But sure, fuck nuclear.

Sweden has one (1) reserve power plant. Oil based. Has been turned on twice in the past 30 years. First time was 22 hours or so during a super cold day in ~2014. Second time in summer 2022. Has been running for almost 4 years and still counting, because it makes financial sense to provide Germany with electricity produced through burning 400 liters (regular bathtub capacity) of oil per second. Please, fix your national production somehow.

[–] parson0@startrek.website 2 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Oh no, I didn't realise you pay more for energy now. Of course then let's build more nuclear power plants because they're famously cheap to build, operate and maintain. You sound like all my favorite Germans suddenly outraged by war(crimes) because gas prices went up.

Electricity prices regularly go into the negative on windy/sunny days. It's not me ripping you off with your energy bill. So instead of repeating populist rhetoric, I suggest you start yelling at your own government. We need to stop importing overpriced LNG and oil and continue to focus on renewables (for Sweden probably geothermal and hydro). Don't worry, I'll be doing the same here. Europe can figure this out together if we only start yelling at the right people.

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu -1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

they're famously cheap to build, operate and maintain

Germans are an interesting breed. They see countries with way cheaper electricity production costs than them, and think, "yeah, nuclear must be more expensive".

if we only start yelling at the right people.

That's what we're doing. Like it or not, there cannot be a strong EU as long as Germans keep electing people like Merz. Tired of the Deutschland Hass? Get these nukes out of Ramstein

[–] parson0@startrek.website 1 points 2 hours ago

You're yelling at me, I don't represent the German government nor did I ever vote for anyone involved. Quite the contrary. I don't like nuclear for reasons already outlined, you can look up the number yourself to disprove your feelings.

[–] dracc@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Sweden already net exports 19.4% of what we produce. Hydro is not free of problems, it famously destroys the travelways of eels and other water creatures. Replacing the capacity of one nuclear plant with wind parks fucks up bird life, and allegedly the turbine blades are hard to recycle. More solar would be welcome but doesn't help shit on those winter nights when we need the electricity the most.

One of the underwater cables from Scania to northern Germany broke for a few days, suddenly our electricity was affordable again. Weird how that works.