[Coral-List] Crazy Ideas to Save Coral Reefs

Jérôme Chladek j.chladek at gmx.de
Mon Sep 10 01:31:43 EDT 2012


Dear Eugene, dear Coral-Listers,

although I agree with you that it is difficult to be "really green", the 
article you mention is painting a "black and white picture". The German 
example shows that it is not easy to be really green, but at least a big 
part of the Germans want to try it (The Socio-Democrats SPD: currently 
at 26%; The Green Party currently at 13%. These are the 2 parties that 
decided to have that 2030 - 30% goal). Some people strive more for 
sustainable energy, others less, especially the voters of the current 
conservative-liberal government, but even them are much greener than the 
corresponding parties from other countries.
In my opinion, the development in Germany shows that the struggle for 
sustainability is one where one has to fight the same battles with the 
same arguments over and over again.
For me the whole struggle of sustainability boils down from facts and 
science to belief and determination: Belief that another way of using 
our planets resources to sustain our needs is possible, and the 
determination to face the risks of doing so and of not being sure how to 
attain it. In this view, the German way, including very ambitious goals 
like 30% renewable energy in 2030, makes more sense. When this goal was 
set ten years ago, many of the current improvements (but also 
technological failures) were still not foreseen. The advance in solar 
power technology is surely also due to that investors saw a big new 
market in Germany when the goals were set. Therefore, I believe that 
this shows that politics can not only react to technological advance, 
but actually set the course and pace if bold enough.
Finally, if it weren't for that ambitious goal, Germany would probably 
still have less than 10% renewable energies, actually, many critics 10 
years ago doubted that even 10% would be possible. In this view, 16% is 
already a big achievement, especially since 2030 is still some time away.

Considering the cited article, I cannot agree with what I see as a very 
simplifying view of the whole problem. Here is an article that gives a 
much better overview and especially mentions that those new plants are 
part of the plan to achieve more sustainable energy in future: 
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-coal-fired-plants-could-be-key-to-german-energy-revolution-a-854335.html
I do not say that I agree with this plan, but it is not, as implied in 
the netrightdaily article, a renouncing of the strive for sustainable 
energy.
Hope I could shed some light...

*Jerome Chladek*
Adviser Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) Philippines


> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2012 12:36:18 -0400
> From: Eugene Shinn<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
> Subject: [Coral-List] Crazy Ideas to Save Coral Reefs
> To:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID:<a06230900cc6fcf77d639@[131.247.136.119]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
> Thanks you Dennis  for describing the problems with LEED and the
> problems of being totally Green. There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy
> associated with greenness.  Imagine my surprise when I read, "In
> mid-August, Germany opened a new 2200MW coal-fired power station near
> Cologne, and virtually not a word has been said about it. This dearth
> of reporting is even more surprising when one considers that Germany
> has said building new coal plants is necessary because electricity
> produced by wind and solar has turned out to be unaffordably
> expensive and unreliable."  If you read the rest in this website you
> will learn that Germany is building an additional 23 new coal fired
> power plants.
> http://netrightdaily.com/2012/09/germanys-new-renewable-energy-policy/#ixzz25nlGAhQ0  
> This is why I commented that, "what we as divers is just a drop in
> the bucket in the grand scheme of things"..But keep trying, Gene




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