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Touchy subject?
Sooo, feeling kind of sick today I stayed mainly in bed (yes, I'm also lazy) and read a lot of board discussions and articles and studies about nuclear energy, specifically (after Fukushima started depressing me a bit too much) about Germany's plans to abandon nuclear energy.
What I found very... weird and weirdly angry was among others and article from an English newspaper where they...
1.) called Germans idiots for not wanting nuclear energy
2.) moaned about how Germany doesn't pay enough to save the Euro
Last which I found curious 'cause I didn't know the UK had such a emotional opinion of the Euro...
But yeah, all the "waaaahhh, all Germans are unrealstic idiots, we will always need nuclear energy!!" (which you can read a lot on German boards, too, and I guess in contrast to some of the people going "we are gonna abandon nuclear energy until 2015, hurr hurr" has it's place, kinda balancing it out...) stroke me kinda... odd.
I mean,maybe probably the way I was raised plays a role in my current opinion of the whole deal, but really? How can you cling to something like decades old power plants and at the same time say "no, it is very scientific, I am a scientist, you know". I always thought scientists would be about innovation? Oh well.
And who I find... funny are all the people going "no, we can't not have those power plants! We'll have blackouts all the time!". ... Yes, because we have soooo many now that the old ones aren't supplying the German power network at the moment? ...
I don't even know why I have such a strong opinion on the matter. Sometimes I wish I didn't. Or no, scratch that, I just wish I was more savvy in the area, so I wouldn't have to rely on information I can find. :/
... Did somebody even read all my rambling? Heh.
What I found very... weird and weirdly angry was among others and article from an English newspaper where they...
1.) called Germans idiots for not wanting nuclear energy
2.) moaned about how Germany doesn't pay enough to save the Euro
Last which I found curious 'cause I didn't know the UK had such a emotional opinion of the Euro...
But yeah, all the "waaaahhh, all Germans are unrealstic idiots, we will always need nuclear energy!!" (which you can read a lot on German boards, too, and I guess in contrast to some of the people going "we are gonna abandon nuclear energy until 2015, hurr hurr" has it's place, kinda balancing it out...) stroke me kinda... odd.
I mean,
And who I find... funny are all the people going "no, we can't not have those power plants! We'll have blackouts all the time!". ... Yes, because we have soooo many now that the old ones aren't supplying the German power network at the moment? ...
I don't even know why I have such a strong opinion on the matter. Sometimes I wish I didn't. Or no, scratch that, I just wish I was more savvy in the area, so I wouldn't have to rely on information I can find. :/
... Did somebody even read all my rambling? Heh.
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The UK is bitter about Europe for some reason. I have no idea why (though it probably has something to do with 1: the UK being jealous of Germany's economy and industry and 2: not being able to get over a certain event 65 years ago, if I'm being completely honest) - I can't understand why most people are so negative about being part of the EU. I think it's wonderful that countries so close to one another should co-operate for their common interest.
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But there's a knee-jerk reaction alright, but mainly in the German government (the parties in power atm) because half a year ago, they decided that the nuclear power plants in Germany should run around 12 years longer each than the law states. Germany was going to stop using nuclear power entirely in 2022 as decided back in 2001 by the Red-Green government, but nooo, the Black-Yellow (haha, that sounds stupid! xD the conservative-liberal (and that sounds like a contradiction...)) made a new (quite fishy) law, that kind of ignored the old one.
It's true that Germans are quite prone to panic about everything (Waldsterben anyone?), but I think with nuclear power it's kind of a special relationship...
Like I said, I think it's partly my upbringing why I'm so against nuclear power and the thing is, the region my family lived (and still lives) would have been one of the main routes for nuclear battles, hadn't the Cold War stayed cold. I think it's called "Fulda gap" and because of that, the thread loomed, even if that sounds kind of dramatic...
But yeah, it's mainly the thing the the governemt is opportunist and now makes unrealistic plans for abandoning nuclear power just so they don't lose any more voters (they lost a lot the last year or so).
I think theoretically the EU is awesome and I'm happy so many states take part, as it's kind of cool to be able to travel so easily (I don't have much of an economic perspective there...), but sadly the EU doesn't quite have the best reputation...
And I'm sorry when I rambled about something you already knew, I just feel so talkative today...
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The announcement here to build another two plants was made a couple of years ago. It is deeply unpopular with the public - no one really wanted it, but they went ahead and signed for them anyway. It's the same with all of the nuclear power used for weapons - it is stored in the west of Scotland (hey... just where I happen to live... XD). All of the submarines do their testing in the bay here, and further up the coast, and there is a plant about 50 miles up the road. Again - very unpopular but no one complains because they bring employment, which in this region is very important, more important than the ethics of nuclear power :\ It's about the only industry left in this part of the country, so everyone kind of feels guilty about not liking it, but not being able to be without. It's a double-edged sword, unfortunately. I understand people being scared about not having work, but at the same time it comes down to the "nuclear power only has a short life-span" argument.
I'm convinced the UK feels the way they do towards Germany because they still have proper industry while we have nothing, with no one to blame but ourselves. It's because the UK is lazy and wants the rest of the world to feed it without giving anything back that we've ended up the way we have, almost like we're too superior and too mighty to actually have to work and provide for ourselves. It's such a poor attitude ¦[ I can just imagine what would happen if the UK had to go to the central European bank to ask for a massive bail out. Certain members of government would rather the country floundered than be humble, admit their mistakes and ask for help.
It's okay, I quite like rambling about politics/green energy XD
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The UK has been in the news here quite a lot, too because of the protests against the current government. (It was the same weekend and apparently the same number of persons as here in Germany, only here those were protests against nuclear power.)
Also it's kind of weird because the UK is seen as not very different from Germany (economywise and all). It would really suprise people (who are not into economy) when the UK would ask for loans or something. Everyone would be like "But they're like us! They should giiive money!" I don't know, it's weird.
I think Germany is really lucky to have so many close neighbours. I can imagine it's harder to have/build an economy on an island where neighbours aren't just there. Well, Germany pays the "price" that no one quite likes us. xD The people in the comments from the UK newspaper (I forgot which one :/) where very "schadenfroh" to say "Goodbye Germany as an economic power!"...
I hate it when goverments decide such things against the public. I mean, they just shouldn't be allowed! No matter how much they as a person don't like the decision, they're there to represent, dammit. :( But does the UK want to continue their nuclear projects now?
The thing with employment is of course very important. I can totally understand that people don't want to lose their jobs, especially when there's not much else. The region where I lived (before I moved to Berlin) was like that, too. It had a really high unemployment rate, and there was a nuclear power plant 40 or 50 km away from where I lived, but it is closed down now. But now the region is a little booming region in regards to solar energy and where the nuclear power plant was, they want to build a natural gas power plant as soon as the old one is gone. It would be very cool if they could do something like that in Scotland, too. Maybe with water energy like they do in Norway?
Me too. xD
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