On Europe's energy crisis and nuclear energy
Interesting discussion regarding the upcoming (unfolding?) energy crisis in Europe.
People stacking firewood in Switzerland? Really?
Many people are unaware and uninformed of the seriousness of the problem. All the preppers out there are thrilling now, and the chronic positivists keep saying “everything is gonna be okay”. Personally, I prefer to slightly skew on the prepper direction at this point.
As Irina Heaver rightly points out, the next year will be worst. Bring nuclear energy back won't be easy nor quick nor cheap—and definitely, it is not going to happen in a year.
And as a fine gentleman wrote in a recent article, you can trace back the ideological origins of the energy transition (energiewende) in Germany one decade back. The rationale for such transition is shockingly weak, or I would say, it is purely ideological rather than scientific. And this is the consequence of playing with harmful ideologies without understanding the underlying physical reality; sooner or later, the physical reality will crush you us.
Another important remark this lady made is that, yes, what is going on in Ukraine is terrible and despicable. But there are many more wars going on. I'm always surprised by the excess of attention on Ukraine and the shocking omission of all the other wars happening at the moment. In all the other wars, people die and families are destroyed as well. But the aggressor is not Russia (and by pointing that out, I don't justify Russia, just to be clear).
Perhaps an even more interesting remark is the relationship between the current financial system and wars. Indeed, under the gold standard, there was a cap on resources a government could spend to invade (or defend) a country or kingdom. Now, powerful governments print all the money they want to finance the military industrial complex and fight those wars. So, it is not surprising (at all!) that there are many wars, it is quite profitable! (for some). But again, printed money have no anchor in physical reality, and we will soon enough learn (again) that lesson.
Finally, privacy, which everyone has different opinions about. But despite what's your personal stance on this, be aware of the tools under development to diminish the current level of privacy we currently have.