Published: February 15th, 2012 at 12:58 pm ET
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Perhaps you remember this AFP report from last week: Freeze forces Germany to restart nuclear reactors: Report
The cold snap gripping Europe has forced Germany, which last year decided to abandon nuclear power, to restart several reactors taken off line, the daily Handelsblatt reports in its Thursday issue.
It is now known the report was a complete fabrication: “A sensational – and erroneous – piece of news spread in the media: On account of this winter’s unprecedented cold snap, Germany has ostensibly re-launched several of the nuclear reactors” (SOURCE)
From the start, something was decidedly off-key with this information: The media said, in part, that the decision was made by Germany’s grid operators, even though an issue like that would be entirely under the purview of the federal government. Furthermore, as Jan Haverkamp, Greenpeace’s expert consultant on nuclear energy, points out, the eight nuclear power plants that Germany closed after Fukushima no longer have licenses and cannot legally go back into operation, or, for that matter, into reserve. [...] Germany has yet even to put the requested coal and oil capacities into actual use.
In fact, Reuters reported yesterday, “Germany powers France in cold despite nuclear u-turn“
Germany came to the rescue of France during last week’s cold snap by massively exporting electricity to its neighbour, silencing critics who slammed Berlin last year for abruptly shutting down 8 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster.
Silenced? Apparently not, via yesterday’s Forbes:
The weather-dependent, sporadic nature of those “renewable” energy sources has already begun to wreak havoc on Germany’s power grid, and threatens to destabilize others all across Europe. After tens of billions of euros have been spent on these systems, raising consumer electricity prices in the process, not a single coal or gas-fired power plant has been taken off line. Ironically, Germany, once a net power exporter, now imports electricity from French nuclear facilities and fossil-powered plants in neighboring countries. They became an importer after their government closed 8 of the older 18 nuclear reactors in the fearful aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima disaster.
Published: February 15th, 2012 at 12:58 pm ET
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Ha! The bloody Forbes has no damn idea what they are talking about…in fact, policemen were patroling France's city centers last week to make sure the shopowners turned down the shop window lights over night.
Loved it.
*too bad it's getting warmer around here again.
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Thought of you when I saw the Reuters article, B&B!
Interesting to note that France didn't JUST import energy, they "imported from Germany at full capacity in nearly all hourly blocks, grid operator data showed." AT FULL CAPACITY.
Liked this from the article, too:
"Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande has vowed to cut France's dependence on nuclear power and to shut down its oldest nuclear plant on the German border if elected, making nuclear power one of the main issues of the election campaign."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/14/europe-power-supply-idUSL5E8DD87020120214
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Hey Mack, unfortunately, to close 1 of 58 is not helping much – but at least it's a start! Problem is the French just overslept the whole "renewables thingie" and can't afford it now (though their situation would be great: lots of atlantic coastline, sunny south,…). An average French uses double the electricity than an average German, thanks to their electric heating the "too cheap to meter"-guys talked them into.
During past weeks photovoltaic in Germany produced 10 GW on sunny days, thats the equivalent of 7-8 nukes (the installed capacity at the moment is roughly 24 GW).
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i counted 140 odd wind turbines on my trip to norway .. 99 percent in germany!! that was last summer.. wonder how many i will be counting this year! I AM SO JEALOUS!! though automatic cleaning toilets and taps are a bit daft!! eh! germany not looking so puurrrrfect now nien? lol!
thought i would repost this because its soooo gooooood!
"Germany came to the rescue of France during last week’s cold snap by massively exporting electricity to its neighbour, silencing critics who slammed Berlin last year for abruptly shutting down 8 nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
VIVE Francois Hollande !! BANZAI!!
and the forbes article? downright embarrassing!! LOL! looks like budget cuts on the pro nuke campaign!! watch out universities… a new funding model required i think!! LOL!!
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Windmills!
Did everyone see risabee's photo of her journey and the one with the windmills? Beautiful sight!
https://plus.google.com/photos/107442207705940975209/albums/5705882593567202625?banner=pwa&gpsrc=pwrd1#photos/107442207705940975209/albums/5705882593567202625
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Great pictures! Thank you Mack!!
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if you passed through denmark some of them were most likely placed there – we have a lot of windmills
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Let's hear it for wind power!
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Hi B&B – here's a little better news:
"Socialist presidential candidate François Hollande has pledged to close down Fessenheim and reduce nuclear dependence to 50 percent if he is elected president during elections in April and May."
A very good start!
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/02/10/sarkozy-refuses-shutter-aging-nuclear-plant/By2IM3OV6rUuOrfkotr6wL/story.html
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LOL Gotta love it! Caught red-handed with their propoganda spin! Oh, sweet justice!
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Forbes seems to me to be openly hostile to all renewable and green forms of energy. They are promoting nuclear power.
If you like this form of journalism, subscribe. If not, cancel your subscription or subscribe to something like Mother Earth News.
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Agreed. They are blinded by greed, not conscience, I'm afraid. There's big money in nuclear. That is all they care about.
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How do you view the PV production?
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Hi Stock, check this: realtime PV yield over here. Note: they use installed modules as in Sept. 2011 (21 GW). In Dec 11 alone, 3 GW were installed on top .
http://www.sma.de/en/news-information/pv-electricity-produced-in-germany.html
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HI STOCK
WITH GROOOOOVY MUSIC OF COURSE!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6TWjSfPvEI
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luv the germans!!
kraftwrerk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXD6Gtinvbc
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Speaking of Germans this is a must see documentary with English subtitles. A must for everyone on this site and should be seen by everyone. IMHO http://youtu.be/hv73MfgZWdg
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Wow, thanks so much for the link to this Nuclear Waste Madness video, MoonShellBlue! I'm almost done watching the entire video. It is vital information that will open many eyes. Should be required viewing!
Here are just some of the lessons learned:
1. Nuclear Waste reprocessing plants like La Hague account for 80% of Europe's exposure to radiation:
2. La Hague is allowed to release most, if not all, its radioactive tritium and Krypton-85 gases, because there is currently NO filtering device invented that can trap Krypton-85 gas. The CEO of the French "Nuclear Safety Authority"
admitted this, saying "Ce n'est pas facile!" ("It's not easy") but said they're 'working on it." Makes me feel sooo much better (Not!)
Let's now extrapolate this revelation to include all the other waste processing and nuclear power plants in the rest of the world..It isn't just La Hague releasing these gases…So we are all breathing ever-increasing amounts as they continue to be released and continue to build up in the atmosphere! We need to sue these folks for the damage they're doing to our health and environment all the while they've been lying to us! Agrrggg!
3. Arclight would be interested in this film if he hasn't already seen it, given his investigations into radiactive releases in Europe. The film notes that residents near La Hague are continuously breathing in radioactive air as a result of these releases, as Krypton-85 lasts for 10 years and builds up in the atmosphere.
4. Another tidbit: In one year, La Hague releases more Krypton-85 than ALL the above ground releases from the 500 nuclear tests of the Cold War.
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A couple more tidbits from the above mentioned video:
Though the "Nuclear Nations" (sounds like a good 'ol boys club if ever I heard one) signed a treaty in 1993, finally prohibiting the dumping of nuclear waste into our oceans from ships, it does NOT ban or regulate dumping of nuclear waste from the LAND into the oceans! This is an ongoing practice, given most poer plants are built next to water sources. Unconscionable!
La Hague discharges into the Channel 400M(3) of rad waste daily. Some of it flows up to the Arctic where they've found I-129
Oh, almost forgot, Arc: The film says CRIIAD has tracked the noble gases like Krypton-85's release using software dispersion models and depending on the wind and elements, it takes 2-3 days for the La Hague releases to spread across Europe.
These crimes against humanity and our planet need to be stopped finally!
It doesn't take a genius to see that the balance of the Earth's health can only take so much before it reaches a tipping point. Failure to acknowledge this, by continuing more of the same deadly nuclear practices is simply negligent and criminal.
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Make that "most POWER plants…"
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A classic example of a disinformation propaganda campaign. Plant false news to confuse people and derail the conversation to bounds set by those who wish to deceive. The greatest myth of nuclear power is that we need nuclear power. More and more it is obvious nuclear power plants contribute nothing we don't have an abundance of already. Are these plants that pathetic?
The solution to all this propaganda and mind control is for people to STOP LIVING IN FEAR. The war on terror sold through a false sense of fear courtesy of the U.S. government. The war on drugs sold through fear even though the policies make drug abuse MORE prevalent and puts good people in jail while the elites enjoy whatever they want. Vietnam, same thing. Now the U.S. is trying to make people think Iran is a threat to us. That is laughable considering NOTHING in their arsenal can ever reach us. Now we try to destroy them economically (An act of war. WWIII has already started.) and then when they lash out due to the suffering WE have caused, the U.S. will say, "See, I told you they are evil. Now we must go kill all their innocent women and children just like we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. etc. etc. Probably drop some DU all over them as well so their children's children will be deformed and we can sell them medical technology$$!"
Maybe, we can push for a new law against any journalism used to deceive by false information or advertising masquerading as "news" and many other situations. Let's make propaganda illegal and punishable by death. Propagandists and liars like those who planted this story should be put to death for treason. Ideas kill people when those who plant them deceive. This page right here contains all the information we need to show people the lie and myth that we need nuclear power and that nukes will solve global warming. Global warming or cooling or wait, now it's global change…another trap set by the politicians and owners of our governments…
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Awesome post Bones, so true. Should be required reading for everyone over the age of 12.
It's kind of ironic how most journalists go into journalism very idealistically with an intent on exposing truths, yet most seem to get coopted/suborned by the corporate media.
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Welcome to the new "Dark Ages" Bones. An age where military prevails. An age where "compartmentalization" prevails. An age where emphasis is put on individual organs rather than soul and constitution. An age where blood and soil get little consideration compared to the unyielding advances of industry. Alzheimers was unheard of in the pre 1900 history that I have found, except for inexplicable dementias considered extreme rarities. Retardation another rarity. The dark ages has no rebuttal. Push as hard as you want but all rebuttal stems from the shills of industry and government that has carefully engineered a response to a question that fits into the scheme of things that has already been elaborated and accepted as the truth. Basically, all anamolies must be retrofitted into the paradigm.
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I was curious about the source of the false report, so I dug around a bit.
According to Wikipedia:
The Handelsblatt (literally: "commerce paper") is a leading German language business newspaper.
Its political alignment is "economic interventionism", defined as:
"… an action taken by a government or an international institution in a market economy or market-oriented mixed economy… in an effort to impact the economy…. The term economic intervention assumes the state and economy are inherently separate from each other; therefore applies… where government action interrupts the market forces at play with orders or sanctions, which will benefit the state…." (Shortened for brevity).
The paper is owned by Dieter von Holtzbrinck, described as "a director of the Dow Jones & Co. Inc., until he resigned on July 19, 2007."
…and Forbes picked up the false story and ran with it.
Follow the money.
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Yay for following the money!
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@aigeezer – Nobody digs deeply into these issues better than you do! Keep up the great work, please.
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Thanks, Mack. Your comment encouraged me to look a little deeper.
From Muckety.com
"Connections: Dieter von Holtzbrinck has direct or once-removed relationships with 50 people, organizations or other entities in our database of the most influential people in America. Under a scoring system that gives more weight to direct links, this score is higher than 54% of all entries."
and…
"Influence: von Holtzbrinck has a Muckety influence index of 65 out of 100. This is a measure of power and reach compared with others in the U.S. leadership elite."
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@aigeezer: I agree with Mack. I've noticed no one does a better job in researching who's who, out here. You're awesome 'geezer! If possible, could you look into the Forbes' motivation, for having run with the Handelsblatt disinformation?
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Thanks, aftershock. I could only speculate about motivation – I don't think they would leave an explicit "here's what we're up to" trail. You picked up on the kind of issues that might be in play in your post later in this thread (time-stamped 6:26 pm on my screen).
I'd guess it's all a form of agenda-driven media spin: advance this agenda, push back against that one. All the big corporate/government players seem to use similar methods, as far as I can tell, and "truth" seems to be an early casualty in the process. I'll post anything specific if I come across it.
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Here's one tidbit, Aftershock, in the form of a Forbes spin piece:
http://video.forbes.com/fvn/openmike/crisis-in-japan?feed=rss_markets_currencies%3F
You'll have to draw your own conclusions about motivation though.
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thanks aigeezer. I'll check this out when the dust settles a bit more, here at work…
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More from Forbes, if you have the stomach for it:
"why we use nuclear energy – it is incredibly efficient as a source of power, and it creates very few emissions and carries a laudable safety record to boot."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/energysource/2012/02/16/the-thing-about-thorium-why-the-better-nuclear-fuel-may-not-get-a-chance/
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Aftershock, here's one more item to illustrate a heavy-handed and long-standing pro-nuke stance by Forbes. It doesn't speak directly to why they endorsed the Handelsblatt piece, but it's certainly consistent:
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0131/084_print.html
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Have you read any "advertorials" lately?
"… project teams consisting of advertising sales, journalists, and photographers to produce advertorials for publication in US News & World Report, Forbes Germany, Handelsblatt and NY Daily News."
Forbes and Handelsblatt and "advertorials" in the same sentence gets my attention. This snippet refers to the 1990s and has no direct mention of nuke-world, but if you look at the link you'll get a glimpse into how things work in the spin biz.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mmcconnellbows
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Good work! Shame on them for publishing such obvious propoganda.
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Why don't these "journalists" ever make "mistakes" in favor of the anti-nuke side?
Hey! Look at me I'm typing, I must be a journalist!!!
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OT: just handled a meltdown here: water coming out of spontaneous crack in kitchen wall, thanks to a broken heating pipe. Nice!
* red wine, yes please, the whole bottle, thank you
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Sending you bushels of patience my friend B&B!
Like,…life's NOT hard enough as it is!!!
I am with you in spirit my friend!
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Wow…did you read the last comment at the Forbes article?
"Larry Bell, Contributor 3 hours ago
Heartland Institute Responds to Stolen and Fake Documents:
A comment posted to this article linked to materials purportedly leaked from the Heartland Institute’s internal communications indicating, among other things, an intent to influence Forbes to block climate commentary viewpoints that are in opposition to theirs. I responded to that assertion, but did so without benefit of background facts to support what I found to be highly improbable. I later contacted Heartland, and will share what I have since learned.
The following is taken from a new Heartland press release:
“Yesterday afternoon, two advocacy groups posted online several documents they claimed were The Heartland Institute’s 2012 budget, fundraising, and strategy plans. Some of these documents were stolen from Heartland, at least one is a fake, and some may have been altered.
The stolen documents appear to have been written by Heartland’s president for a board meeting that took place on January 17. He was traveling at the time this story broke yesterday afternoon and still has not had the opportunity to read them all to see if they were altered. Therefore, the authenticity of those documents has not been confirmed."
http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2012/02/14/a-top-german-environmentalist-cools-on-global-warming/
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From the Wiki article on the Heartland Institute:
"In the 1990s, the group worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to question the science linking secondhand smoke to health risks, and to lobby against government public health reforms. More recently, the Institute has focused on questioning the scientific consensus on climate change, and has sponsored meetings of climate change skeptics."
Nice folks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heartland_Institute
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Somebody is playing hardball. More from the Wikipedia article on the Heartland Institute:
"Oil and gas companies have contributed to the Heartland Institute, including over $600,000 from ExxonMobil between 1998 and 2005. Greenpeace reported that the Heartland Institute received almost $800,000 from ExxonMobil. In 2008, ExxonMobil said that they would stop funding to groups skeptical of climate warming, including Heartland. Joseph Bast, president of the Heartland Institute, argued that ExxonMobil was simply distancing itself from Heartland out of concern for its public image.
The Heartland Institute has also received funding and support from the tobacco company Philip Morris."
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@aigeezer & Sickputer: just happened to come across this one…
The 'secret, corporate-funded' plan to make Americans doubt climate change
http://theweek.com/article/index/224475/the-secret-corporate-funded-plan-to-make-americans-doubt-climate-change
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Good find, Aftershock.
"The researchers, when contacted, acknowledged the payments but said it had no influence on their work."
Wow!
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Well..well.the Vatican…has a choir girl…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9083287/Baroness-Warsi-attacks-lilberal-elite.html
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PS..Oops ..this was supposed to go in general discussion.
The Vatican…busy rubbing "elbows" with the City of London.
Not the Red mass ..BS again.
What?..no dropping of the chalise…in shock and concern for the children of Fukushima..?
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,…the children from where?
It is not even on their minds, or hearts! (What hearts?). 'Cavernous emptiness'
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It is simply beyond me that big news corporations can get away with starting a rumor like that. Both of them should be forced to correct their bogus stories right on the front page AND pay sizeable fines – two years of profits would be a nice place to start. That money could be donated to health services in japan!
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Let them eat strudel.
http://www.bestforexautomation.com
http://www.bestforexautomation.com/freeEA.html
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Hey, nothing against a good strudel!
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This was on youtube a couple of days ago. Such a great article. I hope the west follows Germany's lead.
I think the media knows exactly what they are doing by reporting false information. At this point I think they're told to do this considering what's going on.
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We are now are being ruled by those in Nuclear Denial*; instead of by Leaders that demand an end to the Trillion Dollar Eco-Disaster RISK that Nuclear poses to mankind! The nuclear industry is fighting tooth and nail to maintain it's market share; yet NOW Solar (of all flavors) is far less costly to construct, faster to construct and carries with it N☢ Nuclear radioactive baggage that can kill a Countries economy and or those living nearby!
Ask The Japanese!
*Nuclear Denial
http://is.gd/XPjMd0
The illogical belief that Nature cannot destroy any land based nuclear reactor, any place anytime 24/7/365!
Remember Nature does not follow design basis calculations or even engineering RISK formulas…
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Upon REVIEW, this is huge news that should be widely posted since it proves that MSM is now part of the problem!
They need to Stop Spreading Nuclear Baloney (NB)!
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+ Notice that Reuters is calling Forbes to task for running a phony story!
This is the beginning of MSM starting to actually report about Fukushima FACTUALLY!
I look for many new stories about the problems with nuclear to appear before 3/11!
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The background of this was that wind power plants in northern Germany were running at full power, and the grid was at full load to supply France with electricity from Northern Germany.
So parts of Southern Germany had to import electricity temporarily from Austria to avoid cutting off nuclear France from electricity because of self-use.
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