The European Union walks back its ruinous proposal to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards for buildings, as the political will for climate policies continues to crumble across the West
The European Union walks back its ruinous proposal to mandate minimum energy efficiency standards for buildings, as the political will for climate policies continues to crumble across the West
That climatism has maintained ascendency as long as it has is testament to the incredible power of marketing and stupidity. Unsure which one came first, though!
sounds like a diet plan for menopausal women ROFL thanks for the laughs. I recently read (might even be in your substack) that wind turbines in some places are fed by fuel engines. I remember when the sun panels came up, that Belgium gave subsidies to get them. You could put the surplus on the net and be reimbursed. Then the subsidies stopped, the reimbursments stopped, and now, you have to pay to put your surplus on the net, and when you are short, you pay for what you take in as well. They got them by the nose! I heard about it here in US but the guys told me it takes 20 years to get your investment back, and I would have to cut all my trees! That saves me lots in summer, in shade, so I don't have to cool so hard. I was also told the panels last only 20-25 years, so by the time you get your money back, you have to buy new ones (and they are hard to recycle)
While Germany was at the forefront of both Wind & Solar (neither of which are inherently reliable or cost-efficient),and shuttering Nuclear power plants, electricity prices will l continue to climb ever higher.
Add in EVs, and electric heat pumps, without a reliable power source.
Not to mention that both wind and solar installations have limited lifespans...
And just how do you recycle a wind turbine blade which measures 80 meters in length?
If Climate Alarmism really does die away, it's going to leave a big hole in The Woke Religion's Holy Trinity of Climate, Gender and Race mythologies. God knows what they'll come up with to replace it? I dread to think. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
My architect father made his living updating churched (Michigan) for energy efficiently. He did design a dwelling or two, but the real lucrative thing was to do 'commercial' buildings, which included the churches. He still barely made much money but I think he enjoyed it for the most part. As for my small house in Portland, OR, built in 1924, it lacks any insulation in the walls and so could use some upgrades indeed. The eaves need rebuilding, the attic is somewhat poorly built, and fixing those things will be about $50,000 min. I could do the work myself, I am only 60, but not sure its a good investment. I am not willing to borrow it, and dream of selling this house and trying to buy a very small plot in another state, and building something more manageable, even a glorified shed, well built, that I can maintain easily with a small plot for farming. And a fireplace that works. I miss fire.
The Federal Republic of Germany is an insane place and it is not enough merely to do the crazy things that everybody else is doing. We have to exceed them in our mania for self-punishment.
=> This, dear Eugyppius, might be the core of German-ness in a nutshell. Everybody else is half-heartedly burning a couple of witches here and there? The German lands ratchet up the hysteria and become responsible for 50% of all European witch burnings. Everybody else a bit over-the-top patriotic? As a German Kaiser, you build a mighty fleet, ratchet up the rhetoric, give stupid Austria a blank check for support and throw the whole world into a four-year bloodbath. Everybody else dealing with an economic crisis and a crisis of self-confidence in a haphazard way, trying this and that and muddling through any old way? Germany finds one formerly unemployed Austrian painter and hero-worships him right into the Third Reich.
Here's to hoping that the end of Western hegemony and the re-introduction of serious geopolitical competition will help us get past this era of midwitted progressive stupidity. Maybe? Are we just screwed?
This is how you fail without accepting it. Basically the doom cycle of all European politicians. Not so if you track their personal wealth though, which is inversely proportional to the one of their constituents.
Good news. I’d take issue with your last paragraph about the EUs measures having no hope of saving the climate.
That assumes it needs saving - from what? It sounds a bit as if you are accepting that there is a ‘climate emergency’, something that >1200 of the worlds leading independent climate scientists dispute.
It also sounds a bit like you agree that climate change is man made, where again, there’s no evidence that it is. Climates have always changed, and will continue to do so. CO2 accounts for 0.04% of the atmosphere, at historically low concentrations. If the level halved, plant life would start to die off. Man made emissions Account for <10% of that, so how can tiny variations in the concentration of a trace gas account for anthropogenic climate change?
The truth is, carbon is linked to all forms of human activity, especially economic, thus is an ideal candidate for governments to choose to tax, limit our movements and freedoms, and control us.
it's a funny thing, but people really dislike being poor and cold and straining to read while sitting in their badly-lit living rooms.
anyone sneak in and take the january temperature in greta's parents' house, any of the past few years? would really love to know.
Ha ! it would be better to burn your house down and collect the insurance than obey these ridiculous impossible mandates.
"The lunatics are losing, but we aren't winning"
Depressing but 100% accurate
That climatism has maintained ascendency as long as it has is testament to the incredible power of marketing and stupidity. Unsure which one came first, though!
sounds like a diet plan for menopausal women ROFL thanks for the laughs. I recently read (might even be in your substack) that wind turbines in some places are fed by fuel engines. I remember when the sun panels came up, that Belgium gave subsidies to get them. You could put the surplus on the net and be reimbursed. Then the subsidies stopped, the reimbursments stopped, and now, you have to pay to put your surplus on the net, and when you are short, you pay for what you take in as well. They got them by the nose! I heard about it here in US but the guys told me it takes 20 years to get your investment back, and I would have to cut all my trees! That saves me lots in summer, in shade, so I don't have to cool so hard. I was also told the panels last only 20-25 years, so by the time you get your money back, you have to buy new ones (and they are hard to recycle)
All wishful thinking...
While Germany was at the forefront of both Wind & Solar (neither of which are inherently reliable or cost-efficient),and shuttering Nuclear power plants, electricity prices will l continue to climb ever higher.
Add in EVs, and electric heat pumps, without a reliable power source.
Not to mention that both wind and solar installations have limited lifespans...
And just how do you recycle a wind turbine blade which measures 80 meters in length?
You don't...
If Climate Alarmism really does die away, it's going to leave a big hole in The Woke Religion's Holy Trinity of Climate, Gender and Race mythologies. God knows what they'll come up with to replace it? I dread to think. https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/invasion-of-the-virtue-signallers
The point of the requirements is to make the cost so high that the masses are forced into renting.
You will own nothing and like it.
My architect father made his living updating churched (Michigan) for energy efficiently. He did design a dwelling or two, but the real lucrative thing was to do 'commercial' buildings, which included the churches. He still barely made much money but I think he enjoyed it for the most part. As for my small house in Portland, OR, built in 1924, it lacks any insulation in the walls and so could use some upgrades indeed. The eaves need rebuilding, the attic is somewhat poorly built, and fixing those things will be about $50,000 min. I could do the work myself, I am only 60, but not sure its a good investment. I am not willing to borrow it, and dream of selling this house and trying to buy a very small plot in another state, and building something more manageable, even a glorified shed, well built, that I can maintain easily with a small plot for farming. And a fireplace that works. I miss fire.
I needed some encouraging news today so thank you
The Federal Republic of Germany is an insane place and it is not enough merely to do the crazy things that everybody else is doing. We have to exceed them in our mania for self-punishment.
=> This, dear Eugyppius, might be the core of German-ness in a nutshell. Everybody else is half-heartedly burning a couple of witches here and there? The German lands ratchet up the hysteria and become responsible for 50% of all European witch burnings. Everybody else a bit over-the-top patriotic? As a German Kaiser, you build a mighty fleet, ratchet up the rhetoric, give stupid Austria a blank check for support and throw the whole world into a four-year bloodbath. Everybody else dealing with an economic crisis and a crisis of self-confidence in a haphazard way, trying this and that and muddling through any old way? Germany finds one formerly unemployed Austrian painter and hero-worships him right into the Third Reich.
Moderation doesn't seem to be their cup of tea.
Here's to hoping that the end of Western hegemony and the re-introduction of serious geopolitical competition will help us get past this era of midwitted progressive stupidity. Maybe? Are we just screwed?
This is how you fail without accepting it. Basically the doom cycle of all European politicians. Not so if you track their personal wealth though, which is inversely proportional to the one of their constituents.
Good news. I’d take issue with your last paragraph about the EUs measures having no hope of saving the climate.
That assumes it needs saving - from what? It sounds a bit as if you are accepting that there is a ‘climate emergency’, something that >1200 of the worlds leading independent climate scientists dispute.
It also sounds a bit like you agree that climate change is man made, where again, there’s no evidence that it is. Climates have always changed, and will continue to do so. CO2 accounts for 0.04% of the atmosphere, at historically low concentrations. If the level halved, plant life would start to die off. Man made emissions Account for <10% of that, so how can tiny variations in the concentration of a trace gas account for anthropogenic climate change?
The truth is, carbon is linked to all forms of human activity, especially economic, thus is an ideal candidate for governments to choose to tax, limit our movements and freedoms, and control us.
"Everything that comes out of Brussels is a foul multilayered onion."
Possibly the best line of the week so far, especially in view of the real-life vegetable that bears their name.
*breaks out the Bruce Spence impression*
"There's not enough runway. Between us, and 2030, there's not enough runway. We'll crash, and everyone will die."
Only unlike in Thunderdome, the answer is magic pixie dust and not anything that will actually solve the self-induced problem.
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I wish I shared your optimism that they're actually going to rein in the plans to annihilate Western civilization.