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War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

economist.com

181–190 of 231 posts

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#181
post #120
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an article about investment in swimming classes that was boosted by a series of drowned children, and praises those classes for how they also increase overall health and fitness, the article is pro-drowning?

There have been some Russian articles indicating that the Ukraine war gave a boost to the Russian economy, which is why it grew this year. They were exhibiting nothing more than a purely objective opinion based upon the purest of evidence of course . Many Russians would believe that the idea that an article like that used spurious evidence to push a pro war agenda absurd. Like being pro drowning, as you put it.

> the Russian economy, which is why it grew this year

This is basement-level trolling. The Russian economy shrank last year. Its central bank just forecast between a 1% contraction and 1% growth for 2023 [1].

[1] https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-central-bank-...

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#182
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It would be better if they were honest about the cause. Which is what? What should they say about it?

That their evidence says actually that renewables were trending down in price before the war rather than trying to attribute it to a war they happen to like.

> renewables were trending down in price before the war rather than trying to attribute it to a war

You didn’t read the article because it never makes this claim. In particular, you got a foundational fact incorrect inasmuch as renewable prices are not going down. Nobody’s energy prices are. But relative to fossil fuels, on a real basis, they’ve become more competitive.

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#183
post #151

The article's conclusion may be distasteful to some, but is in line with historical precedent. The 1973 Yom Kippur war and following oil embargo led to fuel economy standards, CFL research was started, search for alternate fuel sources and extraction method such as fracking... Many parallels to today, except "green" sources barely existed at the time.

The French 'Messmer Plan', a huge buildout of nuclear power, was a direct response to that 1973 oil crisis.

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#184
post #151

The article's conclusion may be distasteful to some, but is in line with historical precedent. The 1973 Yom Kippur war and following oil embargo led to fuel economy standards, CFL research was started, search for alternate fuel sources and extraction method such as fracking... Many parallels to today, except "green" sources barely existed at the time.

Unfortunately, conflict is an unsightly yet integral part of how humans progress. When the conflict becomes violent, the stakes become high enough to force us to do something drastic. I guess it's like that probably untrue idea of boiling a frog alive.

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#185
post #119

Just one datapoint: this war has motivated me to make at least this house as independent of external energy sources as possible within the limits of physics and my budget. Gas prices have gone up so far and so fast that freestanding houses are listed for sale all over the place here. I've installed a relatively large amount of solar (nominally a bit over 10 KW) and I'm using that to offset the gas bill as long as we…

Good insulation (floor, ceiling and all walls) and properly fitting doors and windows already goes a long way. My apartment was renovated this way and when you turn the heating on when you come home the place is up to temp very quickly. A lot of houses have badly fitted windows & doors. Put your ear near it and clearly hear sounds coming in through little gaps, or even feel a small air current.

Passive houses can reduce energy consumption by an order of magnitude.

This video is from a guy who's had one built with factory built R-35 walls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3NVDqH39CE

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#186
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that The Economist is looking for any angle to support the fleecing of the American people to the tune of $130B which we just handed over to the arms industry. The war was crafted by this industry through its puppeteering of the US government for expressly this purpose. The Economist might as well write an article about the long-term positive impact on the planet of humans being obliterated by the nucle…

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Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that The Economist is looking for any angle to support the fleecing of the American people to the tune of $130B which we just handed over to the arms industry. The war was crafted by this industry through its puppeteering of the US government for expressly this purpose. The Economist might as well write an article about the long-term positive impact on the planet of humans being obliterated by the nucle…

Which again is an opinion on the source and does not mention the content in any way. I must conclude that you're not interested in an object level discussion about the topic at hand.

I'm not sure how to make this more clear, but "the content" is presented in bad faith.

This is like writing an article about how plant life is thriving in a field because they were fertilized by the blood of hundreds of soldiers and you're saying, "Yeah, but what do you think about the plants growing better?"

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion is that The Economist is looking for any angle to support the fleecing of the American people to the tune of $130B which we just handed over to the arms industry. The war was crafted by this industry through its puppeteering of the US government for expressly this purpose. The Economist might as well write an article about the long-term positive impact on the planet of humans being obliterated by the nucle…

> My opinion is that The Economist is looking for any angle to support the fleecing of the American people to the tune of $130B which we just handed over to the arms industry. The war was crafted by this industry through its puppeteering of the US government for expressly this purpose. Care to explain how exactly the US is to blame for Putin invading Ukraine due to Ukrainians ousting Yanukovych 8 years ago?

> Care to explain

I did in a cousin comment but no answer your question, not really, no. 95% of the time people aren't looking for information with an open mind, they're looking to argue/debate and defend their foregone conclusions that have become part of their identity and so are immutable. Carl Sagan has a lot of good commentary on this problem.

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#189
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is about cost/benefit. This is truer then you know, the world must make the cost of Russia trying to take over another country so expensive both financially and militarily that they do not try this again. Don't forget Ukraine is not the first, Russia has invaded and sometimes even entirely annexed countries in the past. > If Ukraine would tell: We are looking for a compromise (no NATO membership, Crimea belongs…

Maybe I'm wrong. But I think John Mearsheimer got it right in 2014: "Next, Putin put massive pressure on the new government in Kiev to discourage it from siding with the West against Moscow, making it clear that he would wreck Ukraine as a functioning state before he would allow it to become a Western stronghold on Russia’s doorstep." This is happening now. "Russia wants all of Ukraine, they want to subjugate them co…

We’ve been there - Ukraine was friendly to Russia until 2014, and we know what happened.

Re: War and subsidies have turbocharged the green transition

#190
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Idiot is me being charitable. People who believe that speech should be limited specifically because that speech may engender beliefs in others that they disagree with are idiots at best, and malicious authoritarians at worst. This isn't free speech absolutism, I'm not advocating for unrestricted misinformation, propaganda, or calls to violence. I'm stating that people who believe that "wrongthink" is not permissible…

You say it is not free speech absolutism, but in the same paragraph you say that any sort of limitation of speech or belief that some thoughts are simply bad is something only idiots want or have. It doesn't read as a well-rounded belief that came about from measured, reasonable thinking. It just reads as if you're angry.

i have no relationship to the parent poster, who has unfortunately chosen a name confusingly similar to my own
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