Impressed £67.5 billion... nope... 263 billion, and rising.

[Scouse]

Still butthurt about your mahoosive bills eh?

Shows you that capitalism is fucked - we're supposed to use our conscience in our buying habits, but it makes fuck all difference.

 

[Raven]

My bills are £130 a month atm. They were £65 before, mind.

But the point stands, renewables should be cheaper to the customer.

 

[Scouse]

But the point stands, renewables should be cheaper to the customer.

We all agreed that ages ago. But that's not what the article is about.

 

[Embattle]

The Wild Plan to Export Sun From the Sahara to the UK

An ambitious cable project aims to power thousands of homes with renewable energy by 2030.

www.wired.co.uk

 

[Scouse]

We've been saying we should do that since the 90's @Embattle - and in 2008 the head of the UN's environment agency said he could have 'solved' global warming for the price we paid to bail out the banks using exactly this sort of project.

Anyway - good read:

The UK’s energy system is fattening state coffers – just not Britain’s | Frances O'Grady

The British public should enjoy the full benefit of the energy that is generated here, and help plan its future, says Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary

www.theguardian.com

 

[Embattle]

Windy night:

 

[Embattle]

Drax: UK power station owner cuts down primary forests in Canada

The owner of the UK's biggest power station, Drax, is cutting down key forests in Canada.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Scouse]

Said this ages ago @Embattle. It's an "open secret" that Drax is bent, that the Tories have been subsidising it, that wood (and biomass) isn't a "renewable" source and it should be reclassified as not.

We should shoot the people involved. From the involved politicians, the owners and senior management at the plant and the companies that ship the logs in full knowledge of what they're for.

We should have left it as a coal plant. (Or really, shut it down).

 

[Gwadien]

The fact that they ship them from the other side of the world is fucked enough for me.

Maybe it's the intentional fall guy for 'green energy' so old Moggy boy can push his domestic fossil fuel agenda.

 

[Scouse]

UK’s nuclear waste cleanup operation could cost £260bn

Cost of safely clearing waste from ageing power stations is soaring, say experts

www.theguardian.com

Two hundred and sixty billion to clean up our nuclear (although not a title change as I'd initially specified Sellafield. Got to stick to the rules!).

What I didn't know is that our existing, not decomissioned or being worked on Magnox fleet is unsafe.

Deterioration of one of the Magnox stations, Trawsfynydd, which shut down in 1991, is such that substantial work is needed to make it safe, according to the NDA. “Work that would then need to be undone to complete reactor dismantling

We've "abandoned" any decomissioning timetable and the buildings are sat there, getting more dangerous over time.

I agree (under protest because of this sort of thing) that we should build limited additional capacity - but we are properly fucked by this, and making our "we don't know what to do" situation worse with each one we build.

It's a special kind of madness we're afflicted with. These things are really, really dangerous.

 

[Embattle]

‘Miracle material’ breaks solar power world record

Perovskite has been hailed for its potential to transform everything from ultra-high-speed communications to renewable energy production

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Scouse]

SOLARIS

To prepare Europe for future decision making on Space-Based Solar Power, ESA has kicked-off a preparatory initiative, called SOLARIS, for which funding was approved at the ESA Council at Ministerial Level in November 2022.

www.esa.int

 

[Tom]

I love the Good Law Project.

NEW: Government accepts its flagship climate strategy is unlawful - Good Law Project

We are pleased to announce that the Government has confirmed in a letter to the Court and the parties involved in our case with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth that it will not pursue an appeal against the High Court ruling that its Net Zero strategy is unlawful. In a landmark victory in...

goodlawproject.org

 

[Scouse]

I love the Good Law Project.

NEW: Government accepts its flagship climate strategy is unlawful - Good Law Project

We are pleased to announce that the Government has confirmed in a letter to the Court and the parties involved in our case with Friends of the Earth and ClientEarth that it will not pursue an appeal against the High Court ruling that its Net Zero strategy is unlawful. In a landmark victory in...

goodlawproject.org

I do indeed.

Unfortunately, they're not legally obliged to do fuck all about it. - they will just change the policy (they've done so - they've made it a lot worse) - and Good Law will have to go through the whole process again.

Violence is the answer here, unfortunately.

 

[Embattle]

Peak power: hydrogen to be injected into UK station for first time

Exclusive: Joint venture with Centrica is aimed ultimately at reducing carbon intensity at the site

www.theguardian.com

 

[Scouse]

France becomes latest country to leave controversial energy charter treaty

Quitting the ECT, which protects fossil fuel investors from policy changes that might threaten their profits, was ‘coherent’ with Paris climate deal, Macron said

www.theguardian.com

 

[Ormorof]

I hadn't heard of that, sounds like there might have been some juicy under the radar decisions being made there.

 

[Scouse]

The world makes it to 8 billion people in 20 days 11 hours and 38 minutes from now

 

[Gwadien]

The world makes it to 8 billion people in 20 days 11 hours and 38 minutes from now

What's the solution though?

Eugenics is the only solution, if we financially disincentive it, dumb & poor people (not necessarily mutually exclusive) are still going to have lots of babies whilst more intelligent people are going to have less, which isn't going to be much use for humanity.

 

[Scouse]

What's the solution though?

One child per family is a good start - the union of concerned scientists have been signposting overpopulation as a massive existential problem for three decades now.

Don't enforce it (when we try to do that it always ends horribly) - but tax the living fuck out of anyone who wants more than one.

Eugenics is the only solution

Nope.

Although, to be fair, there's a strong argument we should be artificially selecting for intelligence since we've outgrown natural evolution.

if we financially disincentive it, dumb & poor people (not necessarily mutually exclusive) are still going to have lots of babies whilst more intelligent people are going to have less, which isn't going to be much use for humanity.

Depends on what level of financial disincentive I suppose. Coupled with the right (and incessant) messaging you could make people social pariahs if they're selfish enough to have more than one.

But then - overpopulation is only one of many problems we have. We need pan-societal radical change if we're going to survive.

 

[Ormorof]

One child per family is a good start - the union of concerned scientists have been signposting overpopulation as a massive existential problem for three decades now.

From pure climate perspective this could help, but then we end up in a world full of old people depending on an ever shrinking pool of young people to prop up society. Combine it with culling the old and you might save the planet but probably not a pleasant society to live in left behind

 

[Raven]

Soylent green.

 

[Scouse]

From pure climate perspective this could help, but then we end up in a world full of old people depending on an ever shrinking pool of young people to prop up society. Combine it with culling the old

People always reach for culling the old - but killing people at the end of their consumptive lives when they subsist on salmon paste butties and shortbread is going to do fuck all.

We need less people - and wholesale economic reform.

And we need to move away from the idea that in old age you're reliant on the young - you retain 90% of your muscle strength at 90 years old if you've done the right things your whole life. The vast majority of invalidity and disability is self-inflicted. If you're genuinely incapable of looking after yourself then you should be considering Terry Pratchett's desired solution (or heroin + a cliff). But if we don't run our economies the way we do we can build-in a long healthspan.

 

[SilverHood]

Plenty of space on earth, but we need get better at using the resources we have.

Passing the savings for renewables onto the consumer is not necessarily the best way to encourage more renewables. In the northwest of the USA, energy providers get paid at the most expensive production rate. So if 20% of the demand is met by hydro (cheapest), and 40% is nuclear (next cheapest) and you need gas to bridge the gap (40%), then the nuclear and hydro providers get paid at the cost for gas. Made up numbers here, but if it cost $2 per megawatt for hydro, $5 for nuclear and $20 for gas, then if cost was $20, then hydro generators made $17, nuclear made $15 and gas makers broke even. As demand spiked plants would be brought online, and it would be more profitable for those producing cheapest electricity. This incentivized energy producers to invest in low cost renewables, and to only use the expensive burner plants in emergencies. The transmission of power across the USA is a mess though, so you have these smaller energy hubs surrounded by large hubs, and Texas just sits on its own. Building solar plants in Arizona isn't going to help with the price of electricity in New York.

To encourage renewables, the transmission of power should be a priority, as should energy storage, so areas where you could feasibly have lots of renewables had the ability to get it where consumers are based. This is missing almost everywhere. Denmark and Netherlands do it well because they're so small geographically, but imagine if the tidal capacity in Scotland could be used to power London? Or if the huge windfarms in the Baltic and North Sea could power western Europe? It's slowly happening, but not at the scale we need it.

We also need the ability to allow independent operators to push spare power into the grid, and be paid for it. This obviously requires investment on the behalf of utilities, but they should be mandated by law to do this. Pick a region, set a date, and make it so. Once done, next region. After a number of years, all done. In the USA, they're lobbying politicians to make it illegal to do this, unfortunately. Wouldn't want to interfere with the monopoly on electricity and transmission the big utilities have.

 

[Scouse]

Plenty of space on earth, but we need get better at using the resources we have.

It's not space. It's consumption.

Unless you're prepared to live like a poverty-stricken nomad (and you're not, you're really really not) then we need less people. Period.

The earth can sustain about 2.5-3bn people at a western level of consumption. Max.

And this isn't just about energy. It's about way more than that narrow tiny subject.

 

[gunner440]

So when is it going to get to the point where someone suggests nuking India? I mean the alternative is China but we probably couldn't live without them.

 

[Overdriven]

It's not space. It's consumption.

Unless you're prepared to live like a poverty-stricken nomad (and you're not, you're really really not) then we need less people. Period.

The earth can sustain about 2.5-3bn people at a western level of consumption. Max.

And this isn't just about energy. It's about way more than that narrow tiny subject.

I heard North-Eastern (ish) Europe could be considered for demolishing.

 

[Raven]

Except for a test run to make sure it was all working, not touched the heating yet.

 

[Scouse]

Climate change: Kilimanjaro's and Africa's last glaciers to go by 2050, says UN

Many iconic glaciers will melt regardless of the world's actions to combat climate change, the UN says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Scouse]

Sizewell C might be scrapped. Too expensive.

Sizewell C nuclear plant plans have not been scrapped, says No 10

Statement comes after reports Suffolk reactor project could be delayed or axed amid spending cuts

www.theguardian.com

Also - fuck the North. No railway for the Northern Powerhouse (i.e. no northern powerhouse).

Not massively surprised. Nuclear is hella expensive and has a 15 year lead time (and we could probably float a load of wind in multiple locations elsewhere on the planet and lay long cables for less - but we'll probably just burn coal).