[Sweeney]

I'm in the Charente, west side of France, about half-way down. Angouleme is our major town.
I have been suprised by the commitment of the French government to environmentally-friendly policies. The average French person has no interest whatsoever in the environment but, contrary to their usual image, they are not at all rebellious. If the French government says "We all have to do this." then everybody does as they are told. Except for speeding . (I'm a cyclist).
The French government keeps pushing for the banning of agro-chemicals like glyphosate even though this is intensely unpopular with the farmers.
Unemployment figures can be deceptive. The French unemployment benefit pays you 75 percent of your last wage for two years; then it stops. Consequently many people made redundant take a year off before looking for another job.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')e have long-distance travel and shipping and greater penetration of air-conditioning.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('C8', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sweeney', 'I') am thinking that France and other European nations are going to go more into renewable energy for a little while longer. But the high costs and general economic malaise will force them to sharply reverse course.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sweeney', 'B')ut much of this is discretionary. Montequest is missing the point.

[Simon_R]

Hi Montequest
Whilst I cannot answer for the rest of the EU, where we are transport by rail is being heavily pushed, our local town has recently built a 'port' for trains to come in and have freight loaded to lorries and vice versa.

As for the turbines not despatching, if there is capacity in the line occasionally this means that there is sufficient capacity, this means there are a limited number of reasons why they are not despatching

1) No one bought the power (unlikely as Wind is normally a price taker, so low as low can be)
2) They are down for service
3) They are cooling down
4) There is no wind
5) There is too much wind
6) They are Despatchable (ie, they can be remotely turned on or off) in which case, maybe the owner is deliberately turning them off, waiting for the market to tighten, then turn them on, and sell spot at a much higher rate.

Thanks

Simon

[Sweeney]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ontequest wrote:
I never miss the point. I do my homework. It's not discretion that causes the miles driven to be twice that of Europe. It's distance. Distance to work and distance between shippers and receivers. As to AC, try living in the southern US in the summer without it. These are key reasons why there is such a gap in per capita energy usage between the US and Europe, along with population density. What point do you think I am missing? That it won't be painful to cut US energy usage to European levels? I think it will be impossible. ]

[REAL Green]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sweeney', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ontequest wrote:
I never miss the point. I do my homework. It's not discretion that causes the miles driven to be twice that of Europe. It's distance. Distance to work and distance between shippers and receivers. As to AC, try living in the southern US in the summer without it.

[Newfie]

There are areas where we can do better easily.

More economical cars.
Driving less.
Flying less.
Buying less plastic crap.
Buying from American manufacturers vs overseas shipping.


Not so easy to change is the housing stock which sucks up a lot of energy in heating, cooling and ventilation. Here the big cities are a real problem. These places can not be efficiently retrofitted to heat pumps. The spaces have not been designed for cross ventilation and cooling so they require forced ventilation and AC.

Our 1887 town house has its original windows. 13’ high ceilings and 8’ tall double hung windows so they can be opened top and bottom to create circulation. There was an opening sky light in the stair case so it could act as a chimney, it was broken and required replacement, no mechanical replacement could be found, they are not made. Our entire one block street was built at one time, an early mini development. Ours is the ONLY house on the block where the windows still operate as intended. Many of the houses, before historical certification, had all opening windows removed and replaced with sealed windows that could not open. The have to constantly fight to retain the integrity of the windows so that they function as designed. Everyone want to make them inoperable for one reason or another.

But those kind of old design features are quite literally history now. The LEED standards bend toward, give a nod, to opening windows and skylights and natural light. We don’t have the resources remaining to tear down old inefficient buildings and replace them with truly green structures.

Sure, you can build a zero energy house for yourself. You can not replace all existing housing in NYC or Chicago or Paris or London or Tokyo with zero energy units.

[C8]

One of the major problems with the US or Europe going green is that the same people who want to go green also want to open the nation's doors wide to immigrants- thus raising the overall population and total national energy use. As people move from low to high energy per-capita nations they will more than erase any efficiency gains made by those nations.

Some math everyone needs to memorize:

For every 1 American there are 25 people in the world, and about 20 of them live in very low energy use nations
If just 1 of those 20 people come to the US, the # of Americans doubles! (with similar results to US energy consumption)
The world's population will grow as much in the next 5 years as there are people in the US

When you look at the realities of world population growth and the dominance of the green movement by the woke "open borders" crowd, you realize that western energy consumption is only going to go up, up, up.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sweeney', '
')
It's discretionary that Americans use Dodge Rams and F350s rather than Golfs and other small cars. People could live closer to their jobs. And people lived in the southern US before AC had even been dreamed of. This is a classic case of an American saying that their current lifestyle cannot and will not be changed, regardless of the consequences for the planet.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Simon_R', 'A')s for the turbines not despatching, if there is capacity in the line occasionally this means that there is sufficient capacity, this means there are a limited number of reasons why they are not despatching.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sweeney', 'I')t's discretionary that Americans use Dodge Rams and F350s rather than Golfs and other small cars. People could live closer to their jobs. And people lived in the southern US before AC had even been dreamed of. This is a classic case of an American saying that their current lifestyle cannot and will not be changed, regardless of the consequences for the planet.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'T')here are areas where we can do better easily.

More economical cars.
Driving less.
Flying less.
Buying less plastic crap.
Buying from American manufacturers vs overseas shipping.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('C8', 'O')ne of the major problems with the US or Europe going green is that the same people who want to go green also want to open the nation's doors wide to immigrants- thus raising the overall population and total national energy use. As people move from low to high energy per-capita nations they will more than erase any efficiency gains made by those nations.

[asg70]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '
')Most people cannot live closer to their jobs.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('asg70', ' ')Did you just crawl back out from under a rock after all these years without staying up to date on how the world has been changing?

[MonteQuest]

Here's the latest breakdown of renewables and electrical power generation in the USA. Modern renewables like wind, solar, and geothermal comprise just 9.5%.

[REAL Green]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', 'E')asily? All these things involve less economic activity. Who will absorb the loss? As we are seeing from the economic chaos from the pandemic, you can't use less and you can't do less and keep the house of cards standing. Conservation and efficiency gains are not solutions for a population in overshoot. They are perpetuations of it. I thought this had been hammered home over the years on peakoil.com?

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('C8', 'O')ne of the major problems with the US or Europe going green is that the same people who want to go green also want to open the nation's doors wide to immigrants- thus raising the overall population and total national energy use. As people move from low to high energy per-capita nations they will more than erase any efficiency gains made by those nations.

Some math everyone needs to memorize:

For every 1 American there are 25 people in the world, and about 20 of them live in very low energy use nations
If just 1 of those 20 people come to the US, the # of Americans doubles! (with similar results to US energy consumption)
The world's population will grow as much in the next 5 years as there are people in the US

When you look at the realities of world population growth and the dominance of the green movement by the woke "open borders" crowd, you realize that western energy consumption is only going to go up, up, up.

[Ibon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('REAL Green', '
') Acceptance of failure is a learning experience.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MonteQuest', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'T')here are areas where we can do better easily.

More economical cars.
Driving less.
Flying less.
Buying less plastic crap.
Buying from American manufacturers vs overseas shipping.