Quote:
Originally Posted by Vendor
So what about the overall outcome, do you think  |
A couple years of green supremacy, then when everything green is set in motion, other topics will dominate and the greens will be back to opposition or junior partner. Green is a fashion right now due to Fukushima, rising oil prices and the eternal question of energy dependency.
However, even if only a fashion, major reasons why I am personally all for green tech are:
a) Uranium may have very much reached it's peak as well, just like oil, and if not as of yet, then probably very soon, so we just replace one liability with another. Plutonium, imho, poses an even greater risk and should not even be considered due to its highly poisonous nature.
b) Nuclear power is highly expensive and highly subsidized as a result of that (just imagine that money would flow into green tech instead)
c) Those states in Germany that more then any other rely on nuclear technology, the southern states, are not willing to have their waste disposed in their regions. The whole question of nuclear waste storage is not answered as of yet and probably won't in the near future. So the obvious benefits in CO reduction are more then offset by highly dangerous waste that will stay here for thousands of years. Not a single argument so far pro nuclear power has yet managed to offset that.
d) Pressure for innovation usually leads to innovation, that is true for green tech as well.
e) It will finally solve an issue that has litereally ripped german society apart since Chernobyl.
So in principle, the greens have a chance to get some very fundamental changes going here, which should lead Germany to some very nifty results, most important energy dependency and a break up the centralized energy supply dictated by only 4 large companies who more then know how to benefit from their current monopolies. But back to energy dependancy, that one alone would solve a huge strategic question, defining world politics and what role Germany will play in it in the future (key phrase here to consider:
no blood for oil)
However, for that the greens have to clear up some of their own issues.
Notably: they will have to get some of their local groups into line that are actively trying to prevent the building of the power lines connecting the north and south of Germany to deliver the green electricity to those regions that require it (and that will be have to be supplemented by a European power grid doing the same for all of Europe, check out the
desertec initiative on google and how that one may also have the added benefit to get some northern African nations enough perspective to enable stable and economical successful governments, a prerequisite for democracy.
They also will have to invest massively into storage technology, a field that is underdeveloped so far.
All in all this change will cost Germany huge amounts of money, so short term is not very viable. But the long term benefits should massively out weight these investments now, should create lots of jobs and give Germany something of a national project, our own Apollo program, so to say. I personally am perfectly willing to pay higher energy costs along the transformation period to make this possible.