TheHat

EUROPEANS SWITCHING BACK TO COAL | National Center for Policy Analysis

Good for Italy. As prices soar people will demand cheaper energy and the global warming movement will be put in its place at the same time.

See how outlawing different energies harms a country. Why woiuld you outlaw nuclear power? Now they are in a bind financially and are turning to cheaper methods which will always drive economies.

AzTeK

You are right. Austria is totally on the brink of ruin since it outlawed nuclear power 1978

This is a step backward in every way. I'm just glad the binding EU and Kyoto protocol agreements are gonna come around and bite Italy in the ass. Italy is already 21% over the Kyoto target as is.

Sad thing is just that the average citizens will be footing the bill 2012, while the politicians who allowed this to happen will probably all be retired sitting in their mansions and having a good time...

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TheHat

What does this have to do with Italy outlawing nuclear power? Why would any country outlaw an energy source? That is just stupid.

It is a step in the correct direction. The best way to offset high prices is to go with a cheaper energy. Coal provides that source of cheap energy.

Kyoto is a shame. Who is going to enforce the requirements?

Sooner or later people will wake up from this idea that coal, oil, and other energy forms are evil things. They are good things that have given us a higher standard of living world wide.

AzTeK

I'm sure the roughly 60 immediate deaths, officially estimated 9000 follow-up deaths and the 400,000 people that had to be evacuated after Tschernobyl agree with you. Your indifferent attitude towards human life is disgusting. And we're not even starting to talk about the toxic waste that will be around for thousands of years to come, the mess made in order to mine uranium and ecological effects of using rivers or the ocean for cooling

The best way to offset high prices is to finally find the balls to invest in energy sources that are sustainable and in the long run even free. Wind, Hydro, Solar...the energy out there is endless.

The international community that signed it into international law.

They'r not evil things, they'r outdated things. They have not given us a higher standard of living worldwide, they have given us a higher standard of living in parts of the West. For areas like the ME, most notably Iraq, they have brought nothing but destruction.

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TheHat

NOooooooo, oil didnt bring destruction, the dictators did that. Evil men did that. Oil is not a sentient being.

THe international community???....lmao, like I said who is going to enforce it?

Oil is not outdated, nor is coal. What makes you think that?

janpor

TheHat,
Don't underestimate the power of International Organisations like the World Trade Organisation.

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"Nos pays sont devenus trop petits pour le monde actuel, à l'échelle des moyens techniques modernes, à la mesure de l'Amérique et de la Russie aujourd'hui, de la Chine et de l'Inde demain. L'unité des peuples européens réunis dans les Etats-Unis d'Europe est le moyen de relever leur niveau de vie et de maintenir la paix. Elle est le grand espoir et la chance de notre époque. Nous aussi, nous allons vers notre but, les Etats-Unis d'Europe, dans une course sans retour."

Jean Monnet - Rome 1957

AzTeK

Natural ressources have brought nothing but destruction to both the ME and Africa. And to your information, plenty of Iraqis felt life was better under Saddam Hussein than under the current US puppet government in Iraq. So it was not only dictators, it was also the UK and the US that brought the destruction there. I wouldn't necessarily use the word "evil" to describe people like Bush, but in case you meant him then...I guess you covered that as well.

There are plenty of countries that have surpassed the goal they set for themselves for the Kyoto protocol. Among them are powers like Germany, the UK but also Russia. There is big money to be made from doing better and selling the emission permits, do you really think these countries will just let billions of Euros split past them? Highly unlikely. So yes, the international community that signed it into binding international law will enforce it. Austria btw. is 35% over the Kyoto target and we are set to pay an excess of €2.5 Billion in fines - and I am anxiously awaiting the day when our politicians finally step up to the challenge to change something. It is in the end my money that will pay for it, but at our current rate of transission, we deserve to pay for it. It's pathetic to see politicians everyday tell me how advanced my country is and how great Austrian technology is when in fact we are as unprogressive as a third world country when it comes to leadership in environmental issues.

Anything that is not sustainable is outdated. The times in which we could recklessly take from the planet is nearing an end. That over the last 3 decades alone we have depleted around 30% of our worlds ressources should make you think.

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Wheeldog

Coal as a source of energy is not sustainable. Neither is nuclear power. The only sustainable sources of energy are those which are naturallly renewable (wind, tides, solar, etc.). Unfortunately, those will fill only a small fraction of the energy demands of modern society.

AzTeK

No. Direct solar alone has the the power us thousands of times over. The whole state of California could be powered, even using current technology, with "just" 200 square miles of solar collectors. Might sound a lot, but considering it's roughly the same area that the reservoir of the Hoover dam takes up, it's pretty impressive.

Now obviously it's gonna be a while until we're fully direct solar, but combined with wind, tidal, biomass, etc. it's really not that futuristic a view that we could be fully solar powered in a reasonable amount of time.

I would honestly not consider any society modern that is still building powerplants based on fossil fuels. Austria is unfortunately going to start building 2 natural gas plants soon, which is surely better than coal and oil, but still...I already mentioned a couple of times that Austria in regards to sustainable energy is walking straight back to the level of a developing country. Germany has an extremely impressive green energy law that has spurred development at an incredible pace. With it they have gone from nothing to 6.5% of electricity generated from wind in a couple of years. And compared to the US, German economy is still going strong - probably in part because of this.

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Slartibartfas

They fill only a small fraction currently. We are doomed on long term to switch to them so we better increase their share. This is not impossible.

The technologies with the greatest impact will be btw those that do not produce energy but those that safe it. Raising energy efficiency is a great way to add to the solution of this issue.

Alone for buildings the potential is vast. Considerably above 1/3 of the entire used energy is used for homes and buildings (excl. industries). We know already today technologies to build homes that need only 1/10 the energy of an average home of today while being about 10% more expensive. And the impressive thing about that its not some wasteful home proped up with tons of energy producing facilities, it is not producing those 9/10 of energy, it simply does not need them in first place. The remaining 1/10 can also be easily satisfied by photovoltaic etc, but thats another story.

The point I am trying to make is that alone with this single point, when massively applied to our society you could save about 1/4 to 1/3 of todays energy consumption. I would call that a considerable potential.