This sounds ominous.
Deutsche Bank says Germans should use less gas any which way they can. Their new report suggests they use more hard coal and lignite for power stations, wood for home heating, and use oil in industry. That’s sparked a debate on the merits of using wood. (Nobody say the word “nuclear”.)
Germany drawing up plans to heat homes with WOOD this winter as gas crisis erupts
The Express
WOOD could be used to heat German homes this winter as the country grapples with a gas crisis.
Opinion is divided over the merits of using wood as a fuel with some saying doing so increases CO2 emissions and would unleash a logging boom, trashing biodiversity. Others argue wood is a renewable source of energy and expanding its use could prompt landowners to plant more trees, resulting in more carbon storage.
The Deutsche Bank analysis adds both savings and substitution have already led to a drop in German gas consumption by more than 14 percent year on year in the first five months of this year, largely driven by a mild winter.
Desperate: The European Commission suggests countries pay companies to use less gas, subsidize other fuels, and basically plan what they will have to shut down, and in what order, come the next emergency.
A European Commission plan due to be published on July 20 will suggest countries launch financial incentives for companies to cut gas use; use state aid to encourage industries and power plants to switch to other fuels and roll out campaigns to nudge consumers to use less heating and air conditioning.
Measures targeting industry could include auctions or tenders where large consumers would receive compensation for using less gas, according to a draft of the plan. It adds Governments should also decide the order in which they would force industries to close in a supply emergency.
Meanwhile NoTricksZone reports that the German people were far ahead of them and already bought out most of the wood.
Germany’s Running Out Of Energy: Wind Turbine Construction Stalls, Firewood Becoming Scarce!
As natural gas and oil for heating skyrockets, many Germans are now turning to firewood as a way to keep warm this coming winter. But now firewood is getting rare too, and prices are skyrocketing. The German online Merkur reports of “exploding demand”.
According to firewood dealer Konrad Kötterl. “Some people are panicking about not being able to get any more wood.” As a result, they’re stockpiling. Normally, he has three to four orders a day in the summer. “Right now, it’s 20 to 30.”
Personally, I called a local firewood dealer earlier in the week. They told me they have none left and that they could put me down on a waiting list.
Ronnie Schreiber at TheTruthAboutCars points out that Germany even powered cars on wood in WWII
If that comes to pass in Europe, this would not be the first time Germans and other Europeans would switch to wood for energy. During World War II, as many as a half million passenger cars were run on what is called “wood gas”, also called syngas or producer gas. Germany did not have sufficient supplies of petroleum for its military uses, so it developed synthetic fuels. General Patton even had some of the 3rd Army’s vehicles run on synthetic fuel that they drained from captured or abandoned German tanks.
In the 1920s, French chemist Georges Imbert invented a coal gasifier, later licensing the process to German firms.
Apparently wood gas is created with high temperature pyrolysis and conventional internal combustion engines will run on wood gas without many modifications though the 50-Gallon gasifier needs to be attached at the back or on a trailer. The problem may not be the lack of gasifiers, but the lack of forests to cut down.
Somehow the Greens always end up killing trees.
“Somehow the Greens always end up killing trees”, (quote from the Article above.)
What an indictment for the so called “Greens”. They are not ‘Greens” at all as they are really Communists.
730
Germany and the Czech Republic are sitting on very large volumes of storm and beetle damaged timber, allegedly exacerbated by climate change. They have been exported this volume to China by rail, but the high cost of diesel makes it uneconomic.
540
“They have been exported this volume to China by rail, but the high cost of diesel makes it uneconomic.”
They should’ve used wood-burning steam engines, that way they could have just burned their cargo.
481
Nah…Just put a sail on the front of the engine!
160
We all thought the Germans were so very clever. Obviously another load of BS .
They have coal, nuclear was working well for them & now they want t burn wood?? Must be because wood is renewable!!
The other reason could be that they’re not committed to fixing their problem & will return expanding wind & solar when nobody is watching.
Their industries will fade in the fullness of time! After all that’s what a Green government would ideally see as their goal.
530
There will certainly be a huge shortage of caves for the “ volk” to live in & sit around their lovely wood fires cooking whatever wild life & insects they can find!
10
As they freeze this coming Winter, I predict that there will be an epiphany over all of Europe…that CO2 and Carbon are not that bad and we can quickly go back to burning coal and gas and fuelling our cars with fossil fuels. This will be Government backed, as being tarred and feathered by the populace and left outside in the freezing cold is not a good end. What do you think Simon ?
391
Glenn >”I predict that there will be an epiphany over all of Europe…that CO2 and Carbon are not that bad”
Gazumped, rapidly, by the neofeudalists:
We’re All Dutch Farmers Now
https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/were-all-dutch-farmers-now
Anti-nitrogen is moving a whole lot faster than anti-carbon. But it’s an all-of-the-above movement.
More on the “epiphany” follows.
110
The epiphany:
It’s biting hard now:
“We Are Not Slaves”: Farmers In Italy, Spain, & Poland Join Dutch Protests
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/we-are-not-slaves-farmers-italy-spain-and-poland-join-netherlands-protests
101
Canadians support Dutch farmers
https://thecountersignal.com/canadians-support-dutch-farmers/
41
Hey Simon, sooner or later they are going to run out of storm and beetle damaged timber to burn.
Then what?
In any case, don’t you Green Leftoids claim timber should be allowed to rot where it falls and not collected for firewood, just like in Vicdanistan in Australia?
And there is no significant or unnatural “climate change” that caused the storms or beetle infestations.
Such bark beetle infestations are natural and periodic and a part of the cycle of life.
481
The reason that the Scottish Highlands are mostly devoid of native hardwood trees was that it was all cut down and burnt for heating and cooking centuries ago. Looks like history is going to repeat itself.
261
Heating and cooking? No. Construction was a major use of Pinus sylvestris. My late 1600’s close neighbour, Robert Campbell of Chesthill (yes, he of the Glencoe disgrace) was a typical remover of forests including the ancient Caledonian Forest in Glenlyon. Gambling debts was the principal driver. No doubt some was used for heating, too.
30
Schicklgrubers leave holes too…..
10
That’s why they import wood from Roumania, Hungary and Poland in a way leading to deforestation there. Make your homework, reflect some days for better understanding in the positive case, and stop talking BS.
161
There you go, that should get them sorted until winter.
40
That’s why they are often referred to as ‘watermelons’.
A thin layer of green on the outside, but chock full of red on the inside.
391
The Greens were given the name Watermelons for good reasons.
280
yep. ‘greens’ seem to prefer high density urban environments to open green spaces.
311
Somehow the Greens always end up killing trees.
Me too. I burn them in my wood stove. I’m hoping to get the atmospheric CO2 up to about 800 (currently just a low 421).
However, my shrubs and trees grow faster than I can remove them.
Try harder, they say.
Okay, at it!
191
John H:
But extra CO2 increases plant growth.
70
I believe that 1,500 ppm would be even better, at the IPCC Copenhagen Conference the delegates from China advised that over 3,600 years of civilisation in China there were three warmer than the present periods and each warmer period brought greater prosperity as food crops and others increased.
No mention of “carbon pollution”.
71
There is a winter scene from the movie “Dr. Zhivago” where said Dr. bemoans the pitiful sight of a man tearing down fence boards for firewood. The police chief remarks (paraphrase) “A single man doing so is indeed a pitiful sight, but a mob of them will destroy a city.”
Looks like the Germans are getting ready for real life to imitate cinema:
https://joannenova.com.au/2022/07/germany-plans-to-be-wood-fired-nation-for-homes-but-has-run-out-already-eu-says-plan-which-industries-to-close-first/
I hope our Canadian PM has seen “Dr. Zhivago” and learned something other than how to dress like a Cossack.
20
I wonder if those who are telling us, in the UK, what the temperature will be will remember to subtract the London and other cities heat island effect and use thermometers that are out in the open.
430
Never happen!
Totally contrary to the “narrative.
230
One estimate that the city could be 6 degrees hotter than the surrounding countryside. Don’t tell the plebs and let them think the world is burning. Mongrels all.
250
No! Still saying that the last record temperature was at Heathrow. I wonder why?
120
Look like the problem just got worse.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/russias-gazprom-declares-force-majeure-gas-supplies-europe-2022-07-18/
120
And worse still…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/germanys-crisis-about-get-even-worse-rhine-water-levels-plummet
Deliveries not arriving.
160
That is fabulous news. Just think if they had left the nukes in place churning out reliable electricity cheaply. Serves the idiots right. Our reality will be here at some time hopefully in the near future perhaps this coming summer.
290
And worse still
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/collapsing-euro-and-its-implications
Mind you, it’s by a gold bug.
60
The Rhine has a lot of barge traffic, often with double-stacked containers. Duisburg has a huge container wharf complex, a long way from the nearest ocean. Even in Berlin you regularly see goods transiting by barge.
10
I read up a little on this; apparently this is normal during summer as the water level drops, so barges are limited in their capacity. But this year they need every twig and gas bottle they can get, so it’s exacerbating an already desperate situation.
00
In a perfect world, only the enviro psychos would suffer the pain and consequences of the stupidity they have inflicted on the world. Unfortunately many innocents will be punished along with them. Incredibly you have imbeciles like John Kerry and Justin Castro wanting to catch up to Germany as fast as they can. The cognitive dissonance is truly remarkable to witness.
420
“Incredibly you have”,,,,,,
Yes; that pair really stand out. When I was young, fairy tales were only to be found in Golden Books and when you closed the book it was all over. Now we have escapees from the fantasy world running everything that has a dollar sign connected to it; weird and worrying.
At government level there seems to be little interest in the plight of the average taxpayer when tax money has been spent building a Bigger Bureaucracy which could destroy the nation’s business backbone and infrastructure so much more efficiently.
Someone is behind these events that are destroying the world we once knew; there is evil afoot and it must be identified and crushed.
511
During October 2015 just before the Paris Conference UN Official Christiana Figureres made an admission …
“At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.”
210
UN >”…the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism”
Each of which is mission creep from the original primary purpose:
It’s the first “and” that enables a whole bunch of stuff if they define it in their terms – like destroying capitalism is “social progress”.
Meanwhile, “the scourge of war” goes on.
100
Of course capitalism is how the far leftists describe economic prosperity otherwise known as free enterprise.
90
I think our own B1 and B2, Bowen and Burke could easily match the level of stupidity of any politician on the Globe.
210
And I see that the beserk pleb was in the news today. The big lumps really do float to the top.
81
Australia even powered cars on wood in WW2
https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-141694993/view
120
Charcol.
70
Have blue prints on how to build a charcoal burner for a car courtesy of a friendly regular here , might have to think about making a start on it the way things are going .
60
Give it a shot, Robert.
10
Thanks Sceptical Sam.
10
In wwII, under German occupation, Norwegian cars mostly ran on “wood gas” produced in a generator fixed to the back of cars (no need for caravan-like contraptions). Low quality kindling was used in a process akin to charcoal making. The start-up was slow and the energy density poor. The system was abandoned once petrol became available after the occupation ended in 1945.
220
likewise. REAL fuels were kept for military use.
As one would expect, there is a twist with these system. One of the key gases “generated is Carbon Monoxide; colourless, odourless and spectacularly toxic in modest doses.
This should not be a surprise to any who are familiar with the old “town gas”, used domestically for over a century all over the planet.
“Town gas” was produced by alternately blowing steam and air over a bed of burning coke / coal. This process likewise produced a mix of flammable gases, one of which was Carbon Monoxide. The mix also had a minimal odour, hence regular cases of asphyxiation / house explosions, etc. Pilot flames helped reduce that, but if the gas supply pressure dropped for a while and the pilot was extinguished,, things could get “interesting” upon resumption of service.
The advent of r4eticulated electricity saved a LOT of lives, globally. That is why the eco-nazis want it restricted so much.
270
“Town gas” was produced by alternately blowing steam and air over a bed of burning coke / coal. This process likewise produced a mix of flammable gases, one of which was Carbon Monoxide. The mix also had a minimal odour, hence regular cases of asphyxiation / house explosions.”
The oven proved to be the painless way out for many a disgruntled housewife back in the day.
70
I believe natural gas is not actually toxic like town gas (coal gas) was.
So natural gas is not a useful way to commit suicide unless it is used in a manner to displace all the air.
21
David M:
As found out by that chap in the UK who decided to commit suicide by closing the windows and other ventilation in his house and turned the gas stove on after extinguishing the pilot flame and let the gas fill the house. After an hour or so he changed his mind got up from the sofa, turned off the gas and on returning to the sofa went to light a cigar to celebrate living.
The resultant explosion demolished the house (and him).
70
So the smell is added just to detect leaks?
30
Yes. It is usually methyl mercaptan aka methanethiol.
60
All thiols smell bad.
One hot day when I was working we got complaints about the smell from neighbours about 300 metres away (the land between was largely reserved for a freeway). It was traced to an empty but resealed 200 litre drum of laurel mercaptan. The smell was said to be coming from the liquid around the plastic bung.
Strangely this smell wasn’t evident to those working nearby, but then I remember another factory where we got regular complaints about the smell. One day 5 locals rang up and complained and the Production Controller told each, our factory has been shut down for the last 3 weeks due to a strike and from the wind direction I think you should contact Arnott’s (in the next but one suburb). We didn’t get complaints for some months after that.
And one in England where the comment was that they built the factory away from houses but a new subdivision was built right alongside the factory. All was OK until a new resident with an exceptionally keen sense of smell moved in there. He could smell pollution regardless of the factory working or not.
20
Bruce, I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the local gas plant ( by the engineer who explained how everything worked ) while it was still intact . There were stationary steam engines of various size and Weir steam pumps scattered throughout the plant . I tendered for some of the steam engines and eventually ended up with 14HP and 22HP Reader high speed piston valve steam engines with consecutive serial numbers ( also the original owner’s manual ) . At the time a cracking plant nearby was being used to convert natural gas into the equivalent of ” Town gas ” until all the appliances in town were changed over . The original gas plant consisted of a ” Water Gas ” plant as you describe but that gas was not sent out to the public , rather it was used to heat a coal gas retort . The coal gas from the retort was of better quality although I believe in some places they just used the water gas . Coal was fed in the top into the inner chamber . Heated on the outside by gas from the water gas plant . What came out the bottom was coke . A waste heat boiler at the top of the retort generated steam to run the steam engines . That in turn was used as feedstock for the water gas plant . Some coke was sold to the public , handy for blacksmiths . You couldn’t even walk into that place without getting black all over !
The whole lot was later cleared away .
20
Long ago we had a “gas works” here in Newcastle to supply town gas.
Then, eventually electricity replaced gas mantle lights and stoves.
00
“Opinion is divided over the merits of using wood as a fuel with some saying doing so increases CO2 emissions and would unleash a logging boom, ”
These useful idiots have been well programmed by the few. They will make great subjects after the Western governments self-immolate!
210
MR166
Not in the EU where burning wood is classified as non-emitting.
And in the UK where Drax in Yorkshire burns imported wood and admits that it generates 32-33% more than burning coal does. For this they avoid Carbon taxes.
110
If you cut out the floorboards of your car, you can propel it by pushing with your feet.
Yabba-dabba-doo!
(Is that too much of an Americanism? Sorry.)
300
Unless it’s an Electric Vehicle, you might electrocute yourself trying…
Could push buggy it with horses though.
100
There could be a return to horse drawn buses and the bonus would be the manure for home heating. Back to the future 2022?
170
On Top Gear they showed a comparison between riding a horse and drving a small ICE car Horses breath out more CO2 than the car.
I imagined streets full of people on horseback and horses in stables and paddocks.
The speed and range comes to mind.
Then consider walking but that makes us puff out CO2 and need more food that has to be delivered by draught horses.
I suppose the baker, milkman, iceman and nightman used horses. Back to the future!
70
If you deny individualized transport to your population, and they decide to revolt, they cannot move themselves – “the troops”, as it were – into position as fast as the government usually can.
The self-contained ICE vehicle is a great revolutionary tool. It must be suppressed.
80
“The self-contained ICE vehicle is a great revolutionary tool. It must be suppressed.”
If the govt wants to seize your guns its because they intend to do something that you would shoot them for… They’ve spent 40years trying to completely disarm us.
20
In New York in the early 1800’s the “end of the world is Nigh” proclamations was because of too much horse manure. It was going to be as high as two stories and everybody was going to die.
60
So too, horse manure made the streets of London unmanageable.
40
In those “good old days”, the capital of the state of Victoria was routinely referred to as “SMELLbourne”.
All hail reticulated water and electricity, the infernal convulsion engine and FUNCTIONAL sewers!
20
Germany needs to get back to digging up coal, if economic to do so, or import coal from Poland (which has a thriving coal mining industry) and power Coal fired Electricity Generating Power Stations. Then, restart those Nuclear Power Stations. Then, look for Gas both onshore and offshore in the North Sea.
Leave those German Forests alone for the environment (Greens please take note) and the wildlife/plants.
Australian ‘Pollies’, please take note of what is happening abroad – Germany and Sri Lanka for example and then take note on what China is doing.
310
Germany won’t get anywhere until they kick out the watermelons and anything that has a whiff of green about it, then they can get back to commonsense business.
160
“Australian ‘Pollies’, please take note of what is happening abroad – Germany and Sri Lanka for example and then take note on what China is doing.”
Don’t worry, China has had its share of blackouts and industry slowdown/shutdowns, all is not that rosy, that’s why they’ll come back to OZ, cap in hand to beg for some of our you- beaut coal.
30
From June this year – temporary wood pellet shortages and price increases.
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/economy/temporary-wood-pellet-shortage-as-residents-rush-to-prepare-for-winter.a461053/
prices are still around 250euro per tonne, before tax, and there is still a shortage.
For what it’s worth, these types of pellets have a “heat capacity” of about 4600 kcal/kg
More people are collecting the waste left behind from logging too:
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/economy/latvians-rush-to-collect-wood-felling-residue.a461199/
90
for some perspective, late last year, average gross salary for full time employment in Latvia was 1280euro/month, net: 940 euro/month.
60
Just curious as to how many German homes have wood heaters or open fire places to burn all of this seemingly scarce wood.
110
I had the same thought, but maybe a lot of German ( and European ) homes have furnaces in basements where any fuel would suffice.
60
Maybe they are there but have been bricked up.
30
My father on his first trip to Germany in the ’50s was impressed by the Baronial stoves which burnt green pine efficiently. Normally this results in volatile oils clogging up the flue and chimney fires, but by a series of passages through sandstone these were retained in the stove and burnt. Overall quite impressive efficiency and the huge size (and weight) meant that they radiated warmth for hours, thus the servants could load up ‘half a tree’ and the heat would last until morning. (The opening for loading was outside the room as I saw in the Melk Monastery in Austria, on a smaller scale for individual bedchambers).
They were huge (some had benches that people could sleep on) and ran to tons in weight but could be quite decorative
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/59/54/ac/5954ac3661e76edb3b95fbce5b50eced–stove-oven-wood-stoves.jpg
60
On yesterday’s promise of record breaking heat. Didn’t happen anywhere in the UK, although Wales had a record. For Wales.
“New high temperature of 38.1C confirmed.
The hottest UK temperature recorded so far on Monday has now topped 38C, as the record of the hottest day ever edges closer.
The Met Office confirmed the mercury hit 38.1C at 4pm in Santon Downham, Suffolk.
Currently, the record temperature in the UK is 38.7C, set in Cambridge in 2019.
Monday is already Britain’s hottest day of the year. ”
And Prince Charles says, I told you so. Climate Change.
The desperation to justify the destruction of a way of life
and to sensationalize the weather into a man made disaster never ends.
Plus there are fires in Europe due to trees. No one sees the trees as the problem.
Or a fuel, except the Germans.
So our human carbon lifeforms have to live without Carbon dioxide and not allowed burn trees unless
we need the power to live in which case it is fine to burn trees as long as we grow them for the purpose
and not burn trees which grow themselves. Unless they burn in wildfires. Now does that make sense?
And not a word is said about the extra 7 billion CO2 emitting people on the planet since 1900. Just the cars and planes and
cows. There are two groups in the world who do not need logic and facts as in mathematics. Lawyers and Greens.
261
And in other news of the growing insanity which affects all energy and fuel, the woke have demanded archeologists stop classifying skeletons as male or female. With no evidence of genitalia or fashion or views, it’s very hard to classify an ancient skeleton as LGBTIWTF or even know the preferred pronoun but still there is pressure on osteoarcheologists to respect the wishes of skeltons from the distant past so as not to affect the sensitivities of others also long dead.
This is the wholesale destruction of rational science in a fact free world where all science is just a social construct. So woke activists now need a new name for wood for energy which distinguishes it from natural wood which is not to be burned. Can I suggest, MMW, man made wood? You can burn as much of that as you please.
220
If historical figures are no longer identified male or female, what happens to Patriarchy?
Atilla may very well have been a Hunette.
There are questions about William Wallace and the skirt with makeup.
70
There are real questions about Scotsmen and their kilts. And then those high kicking Greek guards with their guns on their shoulders, short white skirts, white stockings, silly walks and pom poms on their shoes. You have to wonder why they were considered an imposing sight but perhaps they had to police an LGBTIQ community and didn’t want to offend?
As the Marxist Deconstructionists pull Western society apart and tell us black is white, gender is not a fact and wood is not fuel but an evil product of carbon. In anti science Post Modernism, facts are the entire problem and to be ignored.
The nett result of which people will freeze in winter, boil in summer and starve. And from Sri Lanka to California to the UK, people are starting to suffer from the new anti human Green agenda. Greens are the mortal enemy of humans. The quality of life in Western society, even the world was the best it has ever been, until the Greens.
120
Or –
English uncle to a nephew considering joining the army –
“Join a Highland regiment my boy. The kilt is an unrivalled weapon for fornication and diarrhea”
50
There is also that problem with the Spartans and the Theban Band.
Don’t know if it’s Marxist Deconstructionists.
I’m beginning to think it is primordial.
G vs. E level.
Decarbonization?
Think about it.
Literally anti-life.
I make jokes, but I’m with you, I actually don’t think it’s the least bit funny.
30
Too late for William Buckland who unearthed a skeleton in Wales along with mammoth bones and tusks.
From his belief that the world (for humans) started in 4004 B.C. (standard doctrine for C of E divines, as he was) and following the “settled science” that humans didn’t live at the same time as mammoths (Baron Cuvier), he deduced the remains were from just before the Roman invasion and no earlier than 100 BC. hence “The red witch of Paviland cave”. He selected the sex from the bracelets and red staining of the bones (by rouge i.e. iron oxide), and no respectable person in Regency England used rouge.
He was slightly out as later evidence (and changed ideas) classified the remains as male and dating back to about 31,000 years ago
Buckland shire in east Tasmania commemorates him.
60
Germany and Europe don’t have much spare land to grow trees.
Any land used to grow trees will come at the expense of existing agricultural land which will just exacerbate the planned food shortage, but that’s the plan.
Plus it takes decades to grow trees.
Or existing nature reserves will be cut down.
If they import the wood, the world has just about run out of suitable forests to shut down.
Existing commercial forests have been planted for the purpose of building timber production. If they are used there will be a building timber shortage, but that’s all part of the plan.
In Africa, deforestation occurs when people don’t have access to inexpensive fossil fue energy. I guess the same will happen in Germany now.
People are already illegal cutting down forests in Germany now.
This is beyond insane.
190
When the CSIRO reported that the WA Ord River Irrigation Area could be extended across Northern Australia through the NT into NQ with new dams built on the major rivers the report referred to the area of land being similar to Western Europe.
50
And tragically, most of Australia remains unirrigated.
70
A civil engineer explained his proposal to me during the 1980s when the NSW Labor Government was extending the sewage and stormwater outlets further off the coastline from Sydney, he wanted tunnels to be bored under the Great Dividing Range (Blue Mountains) West of Sydney for road traffic, railway and the waste sewage/stormwater pumped to the West to a purification plant and then distributed for irrigation of land.
40
I was very familiar with that proposal.
Apart from allowing non-dispatchable power sources to connect to the grid, the failure to implement it was one of Australia’s largest ever engineering errors.
It again demonstrates why politicians shouldn’t be allowed to make engineering decisions.
100
“It again demonstrates why politicians shouldn’t be allowed to make engineering decisions.”
Remember the old adage DM “He who pays the piper cals the tune”
05
And the politicians call a particularly rotten tune; utterly tone-deaf.
00
And when unreliable power sources were mentioned to the new Minister Bowen and it was pointed out that no wind and/or no sunshine and no power he responded that there would always be a wind turbine operating somewhere.
Maybe he agreed with the ACTU suggestion that flooding from dams overflow could be eased if we all turned house taps on?
40
We have rented the Ord river scheme to the Chinese.
71
I didn’t realise that. Thanks.
The Chinese see that Australia can’t be bothered using its natural resources.
The Chinese will make sure they do it for themselves.
Voluntarily with a small financial payment for Australia, or eventually they’ll just take it by force.
Why wouldn’t they? They see Australia can’t be bothered doing anything with nature’s bountiful gifts, and they need the food, fuel and mineral resources.
Plus they realise a vast majority of Australians simply don’t care.
70
November 2012;
https://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/chinese-win-bid-for-ord-river-land-in-wa/news-story/16ae504efba1ba7de3ff63137d6d282c
Note that Labor were the Federal Government until September 2013
20
They have nice forest, than they planned windmills just there forgetting nature protection to 100 % – that’s the New Green
30
A complete cycle David. Coal burning & the associated Industrial revolution initially saved the forests from destruction. Now in 2022 the western world has advanced to green energy whereby we denude our forests. What ‘new’ fad technology is going to save our forests again?
60
The air pollution from wood burning stoves and heaters in all German houses will be massive.
There is not that much that can be done for domestic wood heaters to reduce emissions. I am not talking about CO2, that doesn’t matter. I am talking about harmful toxic emissions.
The Green Left made Europe use diesel cars to supposedly lower pollution, but it actually increased it. Now they want to ban diesel cars.
Wood burning stoves will be far, far worse than diesel.
And think of the impact of Germany’s and Europe’s few remaining natural forests and animals that l8ve therein.
It just goes to show you how much the Green Left hate nature.
250
By comparison to the European Green Left, several years ago former Howard Coalition Government Treasurer Peter Costello was interviewed by The Australian newspaper when he returned from a trip to Europe where he met a former German Government cabinet minister, a Green. Peter Costello would not comment on everything they discussed during their meeting but did say that the German Green described Australian Greens as being to the left of international greenism.
91
Re diesel cars – my Range Rover is diesel. I went to order a new one and told only electric or petrol available as RR have stoped building diesel. Guess what I picked!
51
None of the manufacturers of Diesel engines can cost effectively meet the latest Euro Standard, my Isuzu 2017 model is Euro 5 compliant with particulate filter burn off system and the exhaust pipe is clean at almost 120,000 kilometres driven. There is little or no black exhaust emission when increasing power, towing for example.
I use Australian made additives to clean the Diesel Particulate Filter to resist expensive replacement and another to clean the fuel system, and I had a second fuel filter installed when new because in remote areas there is a potential for dirty fuel supply.
50
Low mileage S/H diesel.
10
They would know nothing about nature except for what they might read in ” Green Left Weekly’, they are expert in lift buttons, click and collect purchases and where to find latte coffee.
40
In the “best of all possible worlds” –
UK converts Drax back to coal and their wood pellets go to Germany
Might not be in time for this winter though
70
There is nothing dirty about “brown coal” as the Green Left claim.
It just has a slightly lower overall calorific value than other coal due to the fact that it contains water.
With the standard emissions controls on power stations the vast majority of emissions are life giving CO2 and H20.
210
H2O is extremely dangerous. A really disastrous greenhouse gas, far worse than CO2 or CH4. And many people drown each year. And boats sink with many lives lost. Water has prevented international travel and isolated people for tens of thousands of years. Our very own aborigines learned the evils of water 50,000 years ago when they were trapped without their luggage. Water is not to be trusted and yet people fill swimming pools in their own yards, ignorant of the danger. No, H2O needs to be nett zero too. Which is why three very expensive giant French desalination plants are still not used. There is a real and reasonable fear of man made water. And it is in soggy brown coal as a warning of the double danger.
170
Yes, that dihydrogen oxide is really nasty stuff!
80
These tragically clueless American college students wanted to ban it.
I bet they are all Democrat voters.
https://youtu.be/d54IrOBC1S0
50
Penn and Teller had this video a decade ago. Everyone was happy to sign a petition.
40
Thanks, I knew I’d seen it somewhere else as well. Forgot it was Penn and Teller.
20
Interesting lead in to the Penn and Teller bit where the female speaker extols the virtues of doing things by candle light. Only problem with candle light is you need CANDLES. Now what are these miraculous light providers made from? Early days it was Beeswax, then some vegative sources of wax like materials and these days waxes are a product of the petro chemical industry. No oil gas or coal mining, no source of wax that will anywhere meet the demand.
Once again the law of unintended consequences just shoots brain farts down in flames.
40
But cow farts are worse. So the cows have to go. And the camels and kangaroos and buffalo and moose and deer and elephants and giraffes and hippopotamuses and bison and sheep and llamas and oxen and wilderbeest and pigs and chickens and all birds and all the termites. All have to go. To save the planet. And we are not allowed to eat animals unless and until they are dead. Seems reasonable.
120
Picking up the termites with tweezers will keep the unemployment problem under control
60
The real question is whether they are edible or even delicious, with the right sauce. Instead of being lauded for disposing of dead trees, they are now vilified as perhaps the greatest producers of methane. And methane is bad. So termites are bad. But it’s all the same wood?
It may turn out that major bushfires reduce global warming as they prevent the same wood being turned into a mix of CO2 and methane by termites. So bushfires great, cows bad. Why does none of this new Post Modernist science make any sense? Or is that the point?
80
I doubt you will get people picking up termites for the dole. The dole is about doing nothing for money, not working. Besides termites are probably beneath them. Beneath most in fact.
40
The Green Left say cattle are harmful to the environment due to methane emissions. But what did European settlers actually do in various countries?
In the US they replaced one type of undomesticated cattle (Bison bison) with a domesticated type of cattle (Bos Taurus or Bos indicus).
In Australia, domesticated cattle, a hindgut fermenter, replaced kangaroos, a foregut fermenter.
Cattle are indigenous to Europe, well at least since Neolithic times.
The amount of methane produced is not likely to have changed much, not that it matters anyway.
20
I keep on telling people that do not want to hear, that ruminant animals, cattle and sheep in particular, are carbon sinks, not carbon producers. They get all their feed from vegetable materials which, in turn get all their carbon content from atmospheric CO2 – there is no other source. The majority of that carbon is trapped within the animals as blood, flesh, bone and skin or wool and the amount that they release as CO2 or CH4 is a small fraction of what was extracted from the air by the plant food they ingested. Carbon SINKS, I repeat.
70
Not only that PP- ruminants such as cattle and sheep “graze” pasture. Which means when they consume the grass etc, it instantly regrows to absorb even more CO2. The more grazing, the more CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere. How clever.
30
The Greens Party is anti-life.
21
Here’s a question for you. Should we ban the following chemical product? It’s an industrial solvent that is a major corrosive agent for metals. If certain metals are left unprotected this chemical can lead to metal fatigue that threatens major structures like bridges etc. You will find it contained in all those industrial fire extinguishers. Multiple industries use it as a solvent which means it often leaks into waterways. It can also be quite poisonous in the right quantities, with only a small amount ingested into the lungs of babies proving lethal. In past decades it was also implicated in acid rain pollution which affected European forests. Clearly this product is dangerous – it is known as dihydrogen oxide and we should ban it.
30
I see that entitled muppet Prince Harry has had another whinge about the state of the planet.
I would have slightly more respect for his bleatings if he and his grasping activist spouse lived in a brownstone walkup in the Upper East Side of New York, at least we wouldn’t be treated to the sight of his 20 bedroom $20Mil mansion in sunny Californicatia.
190
He’s just following in the footsteps of Al (I’ll leave my House lights on if I want to) Gore.
Do as I say and not as I do…………..LOL
10
Western Europe and others are starting to find out that 2+2 does not = 5 on several issues.
130
I’ll bet they are now rueing the day they cut down forests for wind turbines. Cardinal Pell many years ago decried wind turbines as the greatest modern monument to paganism (not in those words, but that was the idea). Thus we see the unwinding of the great benefits to the greatest number of people of modern industry.
120
And the ABC are still out to get him.
90
https://www.cfact.org/2020/08/15/green-paganism/
SEE LINK FOR REST
41
We can only hope that Green voters get burned first! It is only their intransigence that frustrates Australia’s development of a nuclear energy solution. Green intransigence and Labor edicts issued by a Hawke desperate to consolidate his PMship and build on his cancellation of the Franklin Tasmanian Dam which, if it had been allowed to proceed, could have made Tasmania a genuine power hub without the need to bumble around with hydrogenic conniptions that will never come to fruition, at least economically!
20
It wont be long before a green public servant or politician will present a case for Australia to burn timber for electricity production. There are big areas of under-utilised blue gum plantations in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia ( plus Tassie). Established in the late 1980’s as a possible income source for farmers, the timber was targeted as wood chips to be shipped to Japan for paper production. It never fulfilled its full potential however, like all these schemes mainly due to low prices. Some is used presently where logs are sent to Geelong and Portland for chipping. The achilles heel for this industry is transport because the logs have to be transported by road. Anyone who drives around roads in Western Vic witnesses first hand how those log trucks decimate the road quality. But maybe those logs could be harvested and sent to a local furnace for electricity production? A Victorian version of the English Drax plant, you could say. Origin Energy already run a gas fired generator at Mortlake, so perhaps build furnaces devoted to chipped blue gums? Or , on the other hand, we could just burn perfectly good brown coal in the already established infrastructure in the Latrobe Valley for at least the next 500 years.
70
I think those blue gums were tax rorts first and last.
00
“I think those blue gums were tax rorts first and last.”
Like all frenzied new industries, either a rort to get taxpayer money or a pyramid scheme. It was ostriches for a while, now its hydrogen.
10
Absolutely – there were super funds involved in it as well.
00
“Arctic blast: Tasmania blanketed in snow as cold snap hits south-east Australia.”
Err, wouldn’t that be ‘Antarctic Blast’.
100
Not another climate emergency.
/sarc.
20
Good dusting of snow on Mt Wellington and Cradle Mt.
40
I think it’s terrible what Putin has done to Europe.
Cutting off the wind and the Sun, crippling the modern state of the art Green energy system they had built.
US too.
Biden has gone to Saudi Arabia asking them to increase Sun production.
(CA governor Gavin Newsome rushed across the country for confab with VP Harris and Dr. Mrs. Biden while Joe was out of town. I’m sure it was about solving inflation. Don’t tell Joe. They want it to be a surprise.)
80
And then he denied running for President in 2024. Why? Don’t you love it when people get headlines denying things?
Maybe he has a plan to stand in for Gerry Joe for the next two years? And everyone can pretend. After all it’s been a three ring circus with Joe Biden for a decade now. He was in charge of Ukraine under Biden after all and his son knows a few people there. And look how well that worked out.
70
And amazingly President Donald Trump was actually impeached for maybe threatening to do exactly what Vice President Biden did. Joe boasted about withholding billions from Ukraine unless the chief prosecutor was fired for investigating Hunter Biden’s boss. And the press and the other Democrats just looked away
90
“Biden has gone to Saudi Arabia asking them to increase Sun production.”
I read that it came to nothing… Then now he’s home the official White House press release says it was a great success and OPEC+ will save the world.
They couldn’t order lunch without lying.
20
“Uk in Meltdown’ ,flights cancelled as temp hits 38 deg. LOL
Imagine if we ran Australia like that, we couldn’t fly anywhere after November.
70
Reckon the birds thought that would be a problem?
10
I have often said that the Left are returning us to pre-Enlightenment values.
They are against Enlightenment values such as liberty, freedom, free speech, ongoing progress, Constitutional government, reason, science, toleration of alternative ideas etc..
It is obvious now that they want to return us to pre-Enlightenment technology as well such as cutting down forests and burning trees in a desperate attempt to keep warm. And a war against that liberator of all people, the personal motor vehicle.
I an fully expecting them to soon advocate using horses for transport. Even then, back in the day only the Elites coukd afford horses, the non-Elites walked or used donkeys.
30
Well there will be plenty more wood to burn in Germany when they cut down that 1000 year old Forrest in order to make way for the wind farm. But, if you cut down a tree in order to keep your energy starved family warm this winter you will be branded a climate saboteur.
81
“But, if you cut down a tree in order to keep your energy starved family warm this winter you will be branded a climate saboteur.”
I wonder if that would also apply to cutting down trees to make wooden shoes since one common etymology for the word sabotage describes the actions of disgruntled workers who willfully damaged workplace machinery by throwing their wooden shoes, sabots, into the works.
80
Back in the Cold War era, one of the reasons Germany preserved certain forests was to act as a natural barrier to tank invasion from the East.
40
DM – Maybe further back than that –
“All these procedures were inventions, just as much as Heron’s toy steam engine. With these new techniques, the priests, prophets and magicians could more effectively compete for public attention and support. Credulity they redefined as “faith”, and “fanaticism as “zeal”, while respect for the laws of cause and effect was condemned as “blind materialism”. ”
From “The chapter “The Later Roman Engineers” in “The Ancient Engineers”
40
Is there a single thing that greens have touched that didn’t turn to brown excrement?
90
The reverse Midas touch. Green into brown.
In fact with cheap energy, fertilizer, more CO2 the world was winning, quality of life at unprecdented levels and poverty down to 5% of the population, forests expanding, areas being farmed actually shrinking, backbreaking labour vanishing and 14% more trees. The forests not only saved but expanding around the world.
Until the Greens decided to fix everything.
Now every country is in trouble. And always, the Americans blame the Russians. Until then Germany and Russia were doing fine.
40
I am close to nature an enjoy bushwalking (hiking, tramping) etc..
I have never once seen a Green type doing volunteer invasive weed cleaning, rubbish clean up or, indeed, actually in the bush enjoying it.
61
Adam Bandt is not a Green. He is avowed Communist on the path to power at any cost. As a lawyer, he found a way to get onto the public purse and when he gets power he will do what he likes. Like all Greens. Amoral.
80
Greens always end up killing trees. They sure do. A short story.
Greens in my town, as soon as they grabbed council power, set to cutting down some show piece grand trees from the town centre. They were the hated Camphor Laurels.
Planted by the early folk as long planned hope for shade trees for their horses, in a very very hot town, after 100 years they had finally matured to take full effect.
Long and thick branches reached over the streets from both side, providing an oasis of deep shade giving at least 5 degrees of cooling in long hot summers. Time had seen orchids grow along the branches; a breeding duck nested in the elk horn plant attached to the limb. It was a perfect example of man living with nature. Lights attached to branches and beaming up to the canopy at night, paving underneath with seating, made a rare piece of landscape architecture that had artistic merit, rare in Australian regional towns.
But the paving had become slightly buckled in places. It was deemed a risk for the disabled, a bogus excuse, easily remedied. Of course their childish hatred for the exotic species was the real reason, but they wouldn’t admit that. Their social compassion over ruled nature. Down came the trees.
All at enormous expense. Over 1 million dollars was spent. It was done under a regional town beautification grant. Oh the irony, they replaced it with service station style landscape. Many like it. I dont mind it, but that is not the point. You don’t pull down the Colosseum and put up a modern stadium. It is what you got rid of that is the problem, whether the replacement is okay or not is completely irrelevant.
For me, I’m glad I got to see this whole paradox first hand. The destruction of beauty under the guise of beautification.
Early Australian architecture was sublime, and to be reduced to what it is today, awful, is an astonishing loss of art in society. It has always puzzled me how it happened, what happened, and I got to witness an example of it in action, first hand. And it was all so symbolic, these mad lefty greens full of hatred destroying the beauty and ideals of those before us.
Greens not only lack art, but destroy beauty and nature too. And foremost, they do not understand the relationship between man and nature at all, but even worse, profess to.
80
All part of the plan. Frozen humans are compliant humans.
20
Burning diesel is the fastest way to generate some necessary electricity on location. Whatever happens, the Saudis cash in. Here’s an idea: why don’t Europeans save on winter heating bills and just move to Dubai and surroundings for the coming winter? Or Sri Lanka? Nice and warm there.
20
Here’s an idea.
South Australia has a large number of grid scale diesel generators to keep the lights on.
Since SA now claim to be close to totally energy independent on wind, solar and Big Batteries, why not sell the diesel generators to Europe?
20
Or send them to Tassie.
20
I think Tasmania already has a lot but I guess they could always use more.
10
And don’t forget the fleet of diesel generators purchased by the Government of Victoria not long after they forced closure of Hazlewood Power Station that generated over 20 per cent of baseload electricity for Victoria.
Somebody forgot to check with the Snowy Mountains Hydro managers who would have warned them that the dams were nearly empty because of the drought then underway so back up from the hydro power stations was limited.
20
If you want to modify your car to run on wood with a “gasifier” there are quite a few plans online.
However, I don’t think it would work well with a modern engine. Best to use a 1960’s or previous car.
And the gasifier takes up a lot of space, some are even trailer mounted.
Here are some sites.
https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2010/01/wood-gas-cars.html
https://www.build-a-gasifier.com/studebaker-charcoal-burner/
Quote from first link:
20
BTW, you can also run woodmobiles on coal…LoL…
10
I understand that very low technology Chevrolet and Ford petrol engines were a favourite for charcoal gas fuel.
20
I tried to preserve the remains of a rather rusty Nasco charcoal gas producer used during the second world war. It had been mounted on a Chev 4 truck. It was about the size of an average frig. I never studied it, but it did appear to have a water tank, so I assumed it was a water gas producer.
I remember the pit, about 2m x 2m x 2m, or maybe a bit bigger, where they used to make the charcoal by lighting a wood fire and shutting off the air supply.
The stories I heard did not indicate any fondness for its performance.
20
The big pit was also used in Vietnam to make charcoal for cooking in homes.
Dirty in the pit area but cleaner in the homes.
20
“Back to the Future” was that 1985 film which starred Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly and Christopher Lloyd as his eccentric scientist friend Emmett “Doc” Brown, The film also featured a time-traveling De Lorean automobile built by “Doc” which was powered by a “flux capacitor”. Why don’t we just bring flux capacitors back to power our cars and maybe the electricity grid? Surely, they would be just as efficient as batteries or hydrogen. Maybe even as green as firewood for heating. Look it up, there’s lots of science behind the flux capacitors. I’m sure CSIRO would love to waste a couple hundred million bucks to research them. Actually they’re all science fiction, like those other things I mentioned- and don’t call me Shirley.
30
You forgot about the Mr Fusion.
10
Everything old is new again.
Didn’t see the movie, never heard of flux capacitors. But my hope for the future is supercapacitors. Could this be it?
They are already on the market on a small scale at a high price. I have read that they use graphene. I do not know if the ones you can buy use graphene.
I imagine that the cost of the graphene would be the major component in the cost of the supercapacitors that use it. If graphene could even just partly emulate the silicon chip on production costs, electric vehicles might make wind and solar viable.
00
Taking all policies being thrust upon the western democracies one must give credit to the Roman Empire for falling over & all but disappearing without ACTUALLY PLANNING TO FALL OVER.
The west is actually planning the demise of western democracy with out a democratically won mandate between them!
31
A 394-pages PDF ‘State of Europe’s forests’. On page 32 is a map that shows how much there is forested area in different European countries. Looks like an interesting read, at least for me.
30
Germany is pointing the way to our penitential future as mediaeval monks, granted the benefit of a warming room for the winter
00