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Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

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Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#221

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

einr wrote: post #62
aurareturn wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Whenever numbers show that China is the largest CO2 polluter currently, it needs to be mentioned that China manufactures much of the world's physical goods.

It should also be mentioned that despite being the factory of the world, China's CO2 emissions per capita are nearly half of the United States and comparable to some European countries.

> It should also be mentioned that despite being the factory of the world, China's CO2 emissions per capita are nearly half of the United States and comparable to some European countries.

To be fair, there's a large (~300mn) agricultural population in China who don't use developed country levels of energy. Nonetheless, this is still good.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#222

Post by thrance »

karol wrote: post #200
cauliflower99 wrote: post #70

Irish man here - Over the last few years, we've graduated from providing cheap energy to now importing most of our energy. We've seen huge energy price increases as a result. We're seeing more and more cost-of-living protests, the war now means more will suffer with fuel prices and we're still going ahead with closing down energy suppliers (this is a 2025 article but the point still stands). To anyone praising these…

It's insanity to stop using country own resources and rely on unreliable tech and energy imports. As I browse the comments here I lament that most "above average IQ" folks still don't get this simple truth.

The real insanity is to keep burning that coal, that we know will render large part of the Earth uninhabitable if we don't stop ASAP. Also, it's more expensive than cleaner energy. You want a culprit so bad? Blame EU neoliberalism whose auterity has diverted important, necessary funds from our energy grid and left us in this delicate position.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#223

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

catlifeonmars wrote: post #145
sunaookami wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why even make it about nuclears vs coal? Both are bad, both are hazards and both are not green energy.

What’s wrong with nuclear energy?

Its really, really, really expensive to build.

And people are (mostly irrationally) terrified of it, which matters in democracies.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#224

Post by saltysalt »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #214
saltysalt wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another Irishman here, completely agree with your comment. My domestic gas and electric bills have never been higher, insane inflation for nothing more than political virtue signalling.

> Another Irishman here, completely agree with your comment. My domestic gas and electric bills have never been higher, insane inflation for nothing more than political virtue signalling. The only part of your bills that could be regarded as virtue signalling is the carbon tax, which is driven by government regulation. The vast increases in energy costs were driven firstly by Russia (when they invaded Ukraine) and th…

A LNG terminal would help. Lots of bad infrastructure decisions have left us extremely exposed to those external shocks you mentioned.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#225

Post by delaminator »

cauliflower99 wrote: post #70

Irish man here - Over the last few years, we've graduated from providing cheap energy to now importing most of our energy. We've seen huge energy price increases as a result. We're seeing more and more cost-of-living protests, the war now means more will suffer with fuel prices and we're still going ahead with closing down energy suppliers (this is a 2025 article but the point still stands). To anyone praising these…

[flagged]

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#226

Post by disgruntledphd2 »

jahnu wrote: post #113
redfloatplane wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I think that's going to be very, very hard to sell to many people here in rural Ireland (Roscommon in my case). I would really love to see people stop burning turf but it's such a strong cultural thing that in some parts you'd be ostracised for even thinking the thought. I've personally spoken to people (who are otherwise quite environmentally aware) who suggest they'd never vote for the Green Party bec…

I think they should be allowed for cultural reasons but only if cut by hand like we did when I was a kid :)

> I think they should be allowed for cultural reasons but only if cut by hand like we did when I was a kid :)

Me too! That was a lot of work, and surprisingly hard to stack.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#227

Post by cbeach »

cauliflower99 wrote: post #70

Irish man here - Over the last few years, we've graduated from providing cheap energy to now importing most of our energy. We've seen huge energy price increases as a result. We're seeing more and more cost-of-living protests, the war now means more will suffer with fuel prices and we're still going ahead with closing down energy suppliers (this is a 2025 article but the point still stands). To anyone praising these…

[flagged]

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#228

Post by thrance »

saltysalt wrote: post #203
cauliflower99 wrote: post #70

Irish man here - Over the last few years, we've graduated from providing cheap energy to now importing most of our energy. We've seen huge energy price increases as a result. We're seeing more and more cost-of-living protests, the war now means more will suffer with fuel prices and we're still going ahead with closing down energy suppliers (this is a 2025 article but the point still stands). To anyone praising these…

Another Irishman here, completely agree with your comment. My domestic gas and electric bills have never been higher, insane inflation for nothing more than political virtue signalling.

Don't let the populist sentiment gain you, this has nothing to do with environmentalism. You want a scape-goat? Blame the decades of neoliberalism that led to such under-investments in our public infrastructure.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#229

Post by Zigurd »

rithdmc wrote: post #31
CalRobert wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, I was referring to domestic heat in rural areas.

I think the domestic heating use is a drop in the bucket compared to commercial extraction of peat for export, or historical use for electricity generation. I've only so many shits to give, and people heating their homes doesn't rank.

On cold mornings you can see the wood smoke hanging over the town of Taos New Mexico. It's easy to see even a little bit of haze in the otherwise crystal clear air. Taos is in general a very environmentally conscious place. The KTAO radio station has been solar powered since the early 1990s. It also has a significant population of low wage tourism industry workers.

Re: Ireland shuts last coal plant, becomes 15th coal-free country in Europe (2025)

#230

Post by cbeach »

disgruntledphd2 wrote: post #214
saltysalt wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another Irishman here, completely agree with your comment. My domestic gas and electric bills have never been higher, insane inflation for nothing more than political virtue signalling.

> Another Irishman here, completely agree with your comment. My domestic gas and electric bills have never been higher, insane inflation for nothing more than political virtue signalling. The only part of your bills that could be regarded as virtue signalling is the carbon tax, which is driven by government regulation. The vast increases in energy costs were driven firstly by Russia (when they invaded Ukraine) and th…

Carbon taxes are huge, and they are 100% politically imposed.

And they're often disingenously included in fossil fuel pricing to claim that green energy is fundamentally cheaper.

I believe in climate change, and I believe in doing something about it. But being disingenous with the public is only going to create resentment and resistance to Net Zero.

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