Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[Bofferbrauer2]

EpicRandy said:

crissindahouse said:

Also won't happen for a long time. No LNG terminals like "all" the other countries in Europe have and the shut down of most nuclear and coal powered plants pretty much made us to Russia's slave for some more months/years. Doesn't help to have no real own resources like UK or Norway have.

Pretty weird to think of the butterfly effect in this case. Inability for Germany and some other to act strongly against Russia can be, to a certain degree, traced back to architect and scientist who conceived the Fukushima nuclear powerplant.

To elaborate, Germany wanted to extend their nuclear program. Then Fukushima happened, and in reaction Germany made a 180 and instead tried to get out of nuclear energy asap. Since coal was already ruining their CO₂ emission reduction targets (so much in fact, driving an electric car in Germany could cause as many emissions as a conventional engine until shortly) they needed to get cleaner power in large quantities quickly, too quickly and too much for renewables alone at the time. Natural Gas was the savior in this situation, as gas burns much cleaner than petrol and especially coal. So they went all in on gas, which also helped with the problem with the distribution of renewable energy, which were mostly produced in the north but needed in the south.