Macron warns of ‘end of abundance’ as France faces difficult winter
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The bottom line is that we had a piss poor energy planning over the last decades and now that Europe can't rely on cheap gas we're fucked. We had more than enough time to upgrade our nuclear/renewable park.
With 10 millions people in poverty, the abundance ended a while ago. Meanwhile petrol companies never made such profits: http://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/27887.jpeg
While that was probably somewhat of an outlier quarter, I expect this past one to be too as petrol prices have been going down recently.
[0]: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/XOM/exxon/gross-pr....
They _are_ the inflation. The price of energy is what makes everything else increase in price
https://www.thelocal.fr/20191028/french-nuclear-power-plant-...
Doesn't it make sense that with Russian sanctions, demand for alternative sources of oil should rise and result in higher costs? Even if the oil companies capped prices out of the goodness of their hearts, wouldn't that just end up causing shortages?
No, revenue would be, profit is not.
It's not just about electricity, but water, food, pollution (health), etc.. everything related to the destruction of environment and pollution
(note: I'm French and optimized my life since a long time, almost no expenses, 100-200€mo in total living alone, minimalism, for me it's a triple win: I feel better, save money and save the environment, it's my way to vote for saving the environment)
food: 32€ for a 20kg bag of rice for 4 months, 15€mo of eggs, much vegetable for free (fruit foraging like figs, persimons, mandarines or I help merchants at markets, it's technically illegal work, but that's tolerated, I even talked about it with a cop recently) else that would be 50-100€mo
various: 2€ soap block for 2 month, 2€ air chamber for my bike every year (I can find tires for free in garbages, just like the way I found and repaired my bike), 500€ laptop every 15 years (I'm halfway), 20€ shoes every 5 year, I haven't bought clothes in more than a decade, I could get second-handone or cheap one, or keep using my old stock. No health expenses as well for more than a decade, same toothbrush since years, no toothpaste
so total: 100-120€mo
For several years I had to pay a rent between 100€mo (student room) and 500€mo small appartment, this is way too expensive imo
I pushed it further as student, supermarket garbage, restaurants, it's easy to get bread for free, and end of markets for vegs. There were other people and students doing similar, but probably not as extreme, the downside is I got some food deficiencies (and small mental issues OCDs, that went away after eating more properly)
Japan is another example. It's such a mess. Now they're finally talking about"safe nuclear" again. 10 years and this summer Tokyo had to "ration electricity". Crazy.
It was, when as a politician your pockets were lined by the oil and gas industries to do exactly the opposite.
The whole Russia situation is eventually going to get resolved, but blaming problems on climate change is going to be the new go-to political excuse for any bad human political decisions, lack of foresight, bad management, etc.
It's a great political tactic: there's no end conceivable to the "climate emergency" and you it's hard for most establishment political hacks to ever disagree with that messaging without risking being labelled as pro-climate-change.
I don't care one way or the other about parasitical politicians trying to salvage fragile careers and egos. I care about what comes next. What happens once you agree to hand them that power to fight climate change?
If you accept the principle that the ends justify the means, there's no horror that can't conceivably be justified to fight climate change. This is the exact same mentality that leads to forms of human rights violations like an eternal war on drugs, eternal war on terror, violating peoples' privacy to "protect the children", and many abuses throughout history.
Here is what I'm pretty confident about.
A whole lot of people around the world are transitioning to modern energy intensive economies at a time when we have already picked a lot of the low hanging fruit in regards to fossil fuels, minerals and water from aquifers.
So what happens? Do we really think 1998 USA levels of living is globally sustainable for the population? How are we going to handle this challenge?
Looked at through this lens, a lot of activities of governments (including proclamations of climate change and various military/intelligence campaigns) start to make a lot more sense.
Why?
Timing is the issue. Conflicts over scarce resources is the history of the human race it seems.
equals IMO to more waste (I do not mean nuclear waste, but that also indeed)
> If we can figure out ... efficient ocean desalination
It will create mass pollution of brine, enough to render oceans hostile to life
Ah, but what you're doing here is also another great political tactic: if a crisis is so deep and far-reaching that there's no foreseeable end in the near future, you can oppose any solution because it was always like this, it will be always like this, and people should simply accept it as is.
I have eyes to see the world and choose to use them.
The same celebrities that tell us that climate change is going to ruin us all keep buying ocean-side estates and using their private jets to travel to international environmental conferences. Interesting, eh?
When it comes to actions that harm peoples' liberty and livelihoods, the standard we should go by should be purely unassailable.
Human beings (not all human beings, mind you, just the unwashed poors) are being told that they must sacrifice their living standards and their liberty to resolve very nebulous climate change predictions that have been continuously been proven wrong. This is too much to ask. I refuse the bugs, the pod, and the science juice.
Real environmental issues like the health of the oceans (an actual, real issue) are totally ignored. I think many high-IQ people here have been totally misled about what needs to be focused on and it's really sad.
As an outsider, I think it's refreshing to see an elected official admit this openly.
We at least thought by now you’d have pitchforks or something out so we can mow you down with autonomous drones, but turns out we just feed you drivel on facebook and tiktok and you turn into compliant little drones.
Anyway, enjoy your heat waves and droughts and hunger rapidly approaching, we’ll be in our bunkers and mansions and yachts you poor saps built for us”
Someone has to rise the question of when do we stop wasting ressources because we can? Or maybe we can’t anymore ? But he’s not allowed to rise this problem because he’s rich?
If this guy was after money he would have continued his career in finance. Usual Macron bashing, he’s responsible for anything bad that happens but can’t get credit for anything good.
What I do know is that it is universally hypocritical to tell a people the gravy train is over for you, while you continue to ride it. That is not leadership and that is not someone anyone should be elevating.
A leader in this climate should give up ALL private possessions. Their riches should be used directly to further the goals of the human condition. They should not live in richness but in similar conditions to the least fortunate — so that they know what population to target with policy to lift them out of suffering.
You might be used to these charlatans people call leaders, but it doesn’t change what they are regardless how “normal” it might seem. They are not leaders. They are frauds. They are impoverished of spirit, and no amount of riches can overcome that.
It is tiring to see people lead by these poor, peasant souls who are wealthy in money only — when there are so many noble souls on Earth without an avenue to share their gifts.
So no, until he lives on the streets and sees the conditions of common people, he is not allowed to raise the issue. Until he stops flying on private jets, he is not allowed to raise the issue. Until he gives up living in luxury, until he cooks his own food, until he washes his own laundry, until he experiences what people experience, he is an insect in being able to say anything meaningful. As is anyone like him.
As an aside, it is astounding to me how quickly people rise to defend these men and women who they have never met. Is anyone so quick to defend their neighbor? Is anyone so quick to defend a beggar on a street corner? A man losing his job to outsourcing? How is it that people have so many opinions on those they have never shook hands with, never shared a meal with, never even exchanged gazes with, but leave their fellow many around them to die for all they care?
Sad.
but Lynred (microbolometers in ru drones, embargo restricted component) and Thales (whole military grade thermal sighting systems in ru tanks and helis) made a literal killing, so its all right in the world!
How the Standard of Living Is Measured: The generally accepted measure of the standard of living is GDP per capita. This is a nation's gross domestic product divided by its population. The GDP is the total output of goods and services produced in a year by everyone within the country's borders.
https://www.thebalance.com/standard-of-living-3305758
If living consuming less and living simply is "absolutely a bad thing" then consuming more and living more complicated lives is absolutely a good thing. But good for who? It's not good for the planet and it's not good according to many spiritual and religious traditions because it's driven by always wanting more, which implies a certain amount of dissatisfaction with what you already have.
Rabbi Hyman Schachtel (1954) proposed that "happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have"
Is happiness having what you want, wanting what you have, or both?
I did not say that.
I did however imply that being unable to afford heating (or even being unable to receive heating at all) during winter is absolutely a bad thing, and that's the path Europe is headed towards. Having a high GDP per capita does not mean high environmental damage at all; in fact the opposite is true. Compare how emerging countries generate electricity with how developed countries generate electricity.
It's much better scapegoat then the Jews, the capitalists, the burguasue, the kulaks that were popular last time around the system collapsed, because it's more complex, more abstract and timeless.
I'm deeply concerned about climate change re: food production and human health but it's a dream for political campaigns.