You must log in or register to comment.
- 5 hours
Germany has laws about requiring a certain heating level in the winter for safety and comfort reasons. I hope we can vote the CDU out next opportunity and talk about requiring a certain cooling level in the summer because it’s dangerously hot in most apartments these days.
I won’t rant about landlords here but like, if there isn’t a law this change won’t happen and people will die because of it. I can’t imagine living in a Dachgeschoss right now. My last one got ~5-10 degrees hotter than outside.
- 5 hours
There are legal limits above which you are allowed to withhold rent. I do not know them by heart since I live in a sunny but colder region of Germany.
So at some point the owner has to take measures to lower the temperature. Be it by installing better insulation or by installing AC. Also: you only have to prove it’s too warm, the owner would need to prove you yourself are causing the heat, if they want to curb paying.
- 4 hours
Apart from Global Warming, what explains the crazy high temperature? No wind? Too many mountains blocking weather? Why is it so hot?
- 9 hours
Hang in there our German brothers and sisters, the heat finally broke in NL last night.
Of course, it’s still 26C and 80% humidity, so YMMV.
- fleem@piefed.zeromedia.vipEnglish23 hours
i get to say this every year
but it’s the coolest summer of the rest of our lives
- UnfortunateShort@lemmy.worldEnglish16 hours
The neat thing is: It’s a record high. It was literally never this hot before.
Not that these discussions are about facts at all, but now you have one to confront them with.
- prettybunnys@piefed.socialEnglish18 hours
Hot for much of the USA, not unheard of but still not to be fucked with heat.
- 17 hours
It’s funny, you still see people having a shot about it not being that hot.
That’s a blistering day in Queensland, where I am. With our normal humidity, it kills. I’d imagine Florida would be a good comparison. Sure, I’ve routinely felt 44-45C in summer but fucking hell, in Germany that is truly insane
A comparison would be an above 45C day here.
The other issue too is UV level and how unaccustomed they are to tolerating and preventing that.
- prettybunnys@piefed.socialEnglish17 hours
This may be a dumb question but is the UV level necessarily changed by the heat dome?
- 17 hours
I honestly have no idea ay, it’s not my science. I should add as well, we’re currently being battered by solar activity on top of the heat in the northern hemisphere.
I do know the southern hemisphere has higher instances of UV exposure due to it facing the sun more directly in summer.
- anomnom@sh.itjust.worksEnglish4 hours
We use two °° symbols because they remind us of bitchin’ truck exhaust pipes.
“Fun” fact: this heat wave already has a Wikipedia page that also shows of the 22 affected areas only four (Austria, Jersey, Slovakia and Slovenia) have not (yet) recorded a record high temperature.
- DevDave@piefed.socialEnglish22 hours
just need to hang on for a bit longer and when AMOC fails the heat waves will be a much lower priority! \s
- 16 hours
See, if that happens, it will cause extreme cold in winter which basically makes up for the heatwaves in summer! Checkmate liberals /s
18 hoursThe irony, reuse Ugandan refugee camps for Northern European post AMOC glacial refugees. Also /s
- 1 day
Not to be disrespectful to the Germans who are suffering, but maybe now they will not support coal power plants.
- 9 hours
Why not? Merz is the chancellor after all. It’s safe to assume the majority of voters wanted him to be in power, even if they are all retirees and idiots.
- 9 hours
We don’t vote our chancellor, nor our ministers. We vote our parliament, the parliament votes the chancellor, the chancellor appoints their cabinets.
- 6 hours
That is no excuse, our majority has been voting again and again for a mixture of CDU and SPD - two parties that give a fuck about the environment. And the AFD is probably gaining more and more votes. This country is becoming a total shit show. Aber die Grünen…
- 5 hours
Show me one country governed by a green majority. Also, prove the majority vote for SPD and CDU is based in a support for coal and not just climate being not a priority when voting.
Not sure what your point is and I don’t mean it’s good, but Baden Württemberg is at least a state governed by the green.
Anyways I think we should move all elections to mid summer - that should get some people to consider climate issues when voting.
- 4 hours
Baden-Württemberg is not a country.
My point is it is pointless to point at Germany for “supporting” coal burning electricity. Germany is not a singularity here and has the same problems with conservative politicians as any other european country.
- 4 hours
Climate not being a priority is the ground for leaders to support coal and overall inaction.
Same as in France, where Macron said (again) that he couldn’t possibly anticipate a historical canicule event, even though there was one in 2003, and scientists and activists have been warning that France was warming up at least twice faster than the rest of the world.
Same in Canada where Carney rescinded almost all climate policies in favor of oil business.
It’s time to recognize our collective responsibility here: we elect ignorant idiots!
- 1 day
Germany reopened coal mines cause it was too scared of alternatives like nuclear. To me that’s like stabing yourself with a knife cause you are afraid of a bug bite
- 28 minutes
Since everyone mostly responded to the nuclear stuff, I am not very aware of a reopening or even extention of german coal mining. As far as I know the predefined end of germanys coal mining (at the very least surface coal mining) is still 2030 (unless the CDU decided to fuck that over as well).
- 21 hours
To me, your take is completely uninformed, so allow me to enlighten you. When Russia attacked Ukraine, oil prices spiked and conservative media were trying to cause a panic that Germany hadn’t enough natural gas to get through the winter. Tangent: The natural gas levels are much lower today than they ever were 2022, but because we now have a conservative government, conservative media doesn’t care. Anyway, because the start of the Ukraine war was such a volatile time and to assuage any fears, the last government decided to give the last 3 operational nuclear power plants a 6 month extension and to bring back coal power plants as backup. And that is what they ever where. A backup. And building nuclear power takes decades and costs billions. They help neither in the short-, nor long-term.
- 23 hours
Username does not check out ^^
Very much detailed and to the point. Thanks for taking your time against false information matey ❤️
Afaik after Fukushima they abandoned nuclear no?
After the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and subsequent anti-nuclear protests, the government announced that it would close all of its nuclear power plants by 2022.[7][8] Eight of the 17 operating reactors in Germany were permanently shut down following Fukushima.
While nuclear power was gradually phased out of the German power mix, Germany increased its use of fossil fuel energy by 7% over the period 2002–2022, with a massive increase in usage of natural gas and only modest reductions of coal power and oil power.[9] By some estimates, Germany could have achieved a 73% reduction in its carbon emissions by retaining nuclear power during the period 2002–2022 and could have saved €696 billion on its energy transition.[9]
- 21 hours
Yeah well, that’s the conservative government for you. We could’ve just as easily transitioned from nuclear to renewables, which don’t have the nuclear waste problem that is still unsolved. And Germany was for a brief time leading renewable energy innovation. But when the conservative government was faced with the cost of providing the infrastructure for this up-and-coming industry branch of the future, they instead cut all funding. This directly lead to the downfall of the German renewable sector (“Altmaier-Delle”). So while you are correct, when taking into account the entire time span from 2002, that Germany increased its reliance on coal and natural gas especially, it is incorrect to say that not sticking with nuclear was the sole reason for this. Betting on renewables was absolutely feasible even back then, as the current boom of renewables aptly demonstrates. But the conservatives do what conservatives do best: Stifle the future by fearing the up-front investment cost and sticking to the old and familiar instead of betting on the new and future-proof, even when the old way of doing this has already been shown to be unsustainable.
- 4 hours
Regardless how you see it, keeping nuclear plants running would have considerably reduced the need for coal and gas, which should be the damn absolute priority.
One actually infuriating thing is, the EU set targets and penalties over installed renewable capacity, not over emissions. So while Germany is generating considerably more emissions that most of western Europe, they were the “good citizen”, but France had to pay penalties for not having installed enough renewables.
You can see how much sense it makes at any time:
https://app.electricitymaps.com/map/live/fifteen_minutes
That’s what I call a cynical policy written by people who want to score points but don’t give a flying fuck about climate.
- 3 hours
France has to shut down NPPs every summer because the rivers used for cooling overheat.
- 19 hours
sry but german nuclear power plants were a mismanaged mess and their closure probably saved lives. all power plants along the rhine river leaked thousands of tobs of irradiated water into the environment, same goes for those at the neckar. those are the ones i know for a fact.
they were outdated. mismanaged and ticking time bombs and it was time to put them to rest, maybe not that quick but better than never.
building new power plants just doesn’t make sense because renewables are just WAYYYY cheaper in the long run aswell as the fact nobody wants to build or run a power plant. that’s just an afd and markus söder pipedream.
solar/wind is about 7ct/kwh after investments while nuclear fuel is at about 35ct/kwh
our renewable output is almost doubling every year despite the cdu government’s best efforts to turn back to coal because reiche is a board member of E.On.
Fuck germany but their nuclear exit was a net positive.
- 7 hours
Seems like nuclear power plants leaking would be big news in Europe, we are not living in the Simpsons universe, so I would also like a source on that. I am all up for renewables, but the fear mongering and hate of nuclear energy is not racional, the amount of human deaths caused per TWh of coal is 58 people while nuclear has only killed 0.003 people per the same amount of energy produced, and this isn’t even considering the global warming effects and associated deaths. So yeah renewables are better than nuclear, but nuclear is vaaaaaaaaaaaaaastly better than coal
- 5 hours
if you look into the other comment you’ll see i posted a link with a map of all european npp’s and if you click on them you’ll see all recorded accidents at these power plants.
i’m also not trying to argue that nuclear is worse than coal, far from it evn. but the power plants we had were old and dangerous and in the age of cheap renewables it doesn’t make sense to build them anymore in europe
- 17 hours
all power plants along the rhine river leaked thousands of tobs of irradiated water into the environment, same goes for those at the neckar. those are the ones i know for a fact.
Do you actually have proof/a source for that?
- 7 hours
That is a map of reactors in europe. What has that to do with your claim?
- 6 hours
You have to do a bit more than just open the website and immediately dismiss it. Granted, it’s in German, but clicking on the individual reactors gives you a list of incidents there.
If you want something more condensed, here is a list of incidents in
Germany https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_meldepflichtiger_Ereignisse_in_deutschen_kerntechnischen_Anlagen
or Europe https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_von_Störfällen_in_europäischen_kerntechnischen_Anlagen
though also only available in German. Just because an incident does not make it to the news, does not mean that no radiation was leaked.
- 5 hours
if you scroll through you’ll see a map with all european npp’s and their recorded incidents
That was 2023 to prevent an energy crisis triggered by the russian invasion in Ukraine and these coal plants (not mines!) were already shut down again.
And nuclear is not an alternative.
nuclear is not a. Alternative
Only because your entire country was brainwashed by Russian propaganda in the '90s. Germany used to produce 25% of its power from nuclear. As far as I can tell, currently you produce none from nuclear and still 25% from coal and another 25% from natural gas.
- 20 hours
Most of our fuel rods came from russia. Also, nuclear is prohibitively expensive, uninsureable, and has unanswered questions regarding permanent waste storage.
Renewables are the answer, not nuclear.
ALSO
Most of our fuel rods came from russia.
Not correct its Canada the USA France and the Swiss. https://wits.worldbank.org/trade/comtrade/en/country/DEU/year/2024/tradeflow/Imports/partner/ALL/product/284410
- 18 hours
The answer is both. Germany really did fuck up closing those plants. Just like the US 🥲 and for more reasons than you know. Breeding plutonium wouldn’t be the worst idea at this point in history.
- realitaetsverlust@piefed.zipEnglish16 hours
Most of our fuel rods came from russia.
Idk about that, but even if, but uranium is fairly abundant in the earth, more than gold or silver. Getting it from somewhere else is not a big deal.
nuclear is prohibitively expensive
Upfront, absolutely. But cost drop dramatically with life time of the plant.
uninsureable
That’s wrong. Nuclear Power Plants are incredibly safe. The security standards are immense and if everything is done by the books, nothing will happen.
Fukushima was a problem of risk assessment and massive complacency about procedures, where fundamental security protocols were ignored to “safe some money”. Also, building a nuclear power plant in an area that is facing tsunamis almost regularly was pretty dumb. And Chernobyl was a case of “What happens if we experiment with that hot rock we know nothing about?”
and has unanswered questions regarding permanent waste storage.
Yes, but it’s no longer as much of a problem. We’ve gotten really damn good at reusing burnt out fuel rods. I think we’re able to reuse like 60% of the burnt out fuel rods, dramatically lowering the waste we produce. And I once read about a theoretical processing method that could be able to reuse 95% of the rods, making the waste almost negligible. Even tho that processing method hasn’t been put to the test yet afaik.
Renewables are the answer
Probably not for germany. We don’t fulfill the requirements for widely used renewable power.
- Solar is the first choice, we’d need absurd amounts of space for solar panels. Also, it’s obviously only available during the day, making batteries necessary. And I mean a LOT of fucking batteries.
- Wind is great and widely available in the north of germany - but that doesn’t help the south. Moving power from north germany to south germany is incredibly inefficient and wasteful. Also has the battery problem.
- Hydro is cool, where available. Just bad that it’s barely available. Same with geothermal.
- Leaves us with biomass, which is a nice supplement to the power grid to use up waste from the agricultural sector - but it’s not going to carry germanies power needs in any meaningful way.
100% renewable energy is never going to be a thing for germany. It’s just a wishful thinking. We can’t magically produce vast amounts of power anywhere. We need a way to produce a reliable base load even in areas that are not in a great position for renewable power.
Nuclear is the best long term option we have.
- 11 hours
Upfront, absolutely. But cost drop dramatically with life time of the plant.
Even over the lifetimenof a plant, nuclear is by far the most expensive form of power generation.
That’s wrong. Nuclear Power Plants are incredibly safe. The security standards are immense and if everything is done by the books, nothing will happen.
Yet no insurance company will insure an NPP. They are uninsurable.
We’ve gotten really damn good at reusing burnt out fuel rods. I think we’re able to reuse like 60% of the burnt out fuel rods, dramatically lowering the waste we produce. And I once read about a theoretical processing method that could be able to reuse 95% of the rods, making the waste almost negligible.
We already do have a huge problem storing the waste we don’t have and nuclear waste is too dangerous to rely on hypothetical reusability. Germany’s federal Ministry for Nuclear Safety released a report in 2015 estimating the total cost of dismantling and managing nuclear waste from german NPPs based on 2012 prices and not including the cost of disposal facilities to be aroun 6 billion Euro until 2080.
We don’t fulfill the requirements for widely used renewable power. […] 100% renewable energy is never going to be a thing for germany.
It is though. First thing you miss ia that Germany does not have an isolated power grid. In fact, the Conrinental European Synchronous Area is one of the largest synchronous electrical grids in the world.
Second, the number of available batteries is constantly growing with fun concepts as using your electric car’s battery for overnight electricity. Every home can have sufficient battery storage individually (even without BEVs).
Third, there are still massive capacities for wind parks and solar parks all over Germany and certain concepts can even help mitigating certain consequences of climate change already in effect, like agriphotovoltaic protecting crops.The future is renewables. Nuclear is superfluous, too expensive and too much hassle.
Btw, here is more to read on why nuclear is not a solution (german website): https://quellen.tv/energie#Kernkraft
- 20 hours
- 17 hours
In fact: a vast part of German nuclear technology derives from Russia
In what reality do you live? Did you forget that all nuclear plants (ignore the single one in East Germany that was immediately shut down after reunification) were built in West Germany?
Yeah they definetly stole all that
RussianSoviet technology from the exploded reactor that lacked a freaking containment back in the 80s…- 13 hours
@carrylex After the Fall of the Iron curtain the german nuclear plants were using mostly russian and kasachish uranium.
Because Russia is not dependent on selling fissile material or renewables to support its war machine; it sells petrochemicals and will continue to do so into 2027 and possibly further as lawmakers continue to squabble.
https://www.dw.com/en/russian-gas-in-germany-a-complicated-50-year-relationship/a-61057166 https://www.gisreportsonline.com/r/eu-russian-energy/
- 12 hours
@Forester but Germany would rely on foreign uranium sources. Wo why would you make yourself dependent on the next foreign source of Energy?
And people still laugh at us for not having air conditioning in residential buildings. To be fair, you have to be a sort of clown to rent a place from greedy landlords, but this is 2026 we’re talking about, it’s the best I can do
I don’t know why this BS is still upheld so firmly but nobody laughs about AC in residential buildings. And I personally never heard someone doing that even years ago before when heat waves in Europe were less common and less severe.
Also, this:
you have to be a sort of clown to rent a place from greedy landlords,
is an extremely priviliged and ignorant statemenr, wtf?
I’ve seen plenty Americans bring up in discussions on how it’s funny that most Europeans still don’t have a proper AC or heat pump in their homes, when the past summers have been getting increasingly hot lately.
It’s common place now in new constructions but a lot of old landlords simply refuse to put down the tiniest investment into something like a split unit AC, especially since it raises the property value as well.
With the upcoming renewable energy laws they’ll have to do it sooner or later anyways, but instead I’m forced to make do with an arguably terrible mono unit AC for the time being. The clown being me in this case, sorry if it was interpreted wrong
Wait, I misread your comment, thought you said “europeans laugh about americans having AC in residential buildings”.
But now I’m even more confused about what you’re trying to say…
- 21 minutes
What I am saying is that if landlords were just a little bit more human, fewer people would like me be suffering in their homes right now. It doesn’t help the current housing crisis at all.
If you own a property and plan ahead these issues can be avoided easily, getting a proper AC or heatpump installed isn’t really that expensive in the long-term but many are still refusing to do it or are putting it off unnecessarily.
- 23 hours
Just hijacking this because mono-unit:
A buddy of mine has the PortaSplit. Its suitable for renting places and is not a mono-unit.
He’s veery happy with it. But its sold out everywhere.
There’s even a map ^^
