Germany
-
Critical List: Selenium dumping gives fish two heads; Germany to cut solar subsidies
A mining company in Idaho wants to keep dumping selenium into local creeks, even after its scientific study turned up these two-headed trout and other deformed fish. A judge found BP liable for civil damages in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, meaning the company could pay billions in penalties. Germany is cutting solar subsidies … […]
-
In Germany, solar will be as cheap as conventional electricity by 2013
"Grid parity" has arrived in parts of sunny California and Hawaii, and it's coming to (not-so-sunny) Germany by 2013.
-
Germans turn nuclear power plant into Disneyland
The "nuclear renaissance" is here, only it looks like a whirling swingset ascending the interior of a massive cooling tower at what used to be a 327-megawatt fast breeder reactor in Germany. Business is so good at the park — 600,000 visitors a year — that its owner is working on a "winter annex" inside […]
-
Critical List: Keystone XL decision should come in two months; NIH stops chimp research
The president will most likely have to make a final decision on Keystone XL within two months. Brace for the imminent lobbying fight. Democrats are already pointing out that issuing permits two months from now is impossible, because that timeline wouldn't leave room for required environmental reviews. Germany got a fifth of its power from […]
-
Which countries fail the most at climate leadership?
Sweden, the U.K., and Germany: The European trio leads the world in fighting climate change. That’s the finding of the most recent Climate Change Performance Index [PDF], which was released yesterday at COP 17 in Durban. But Swedes, Brits, and Germans shouldn’t cheer just yet; even their countries are not contributing their fair share. In […]
-
Germany is building a park on top of a highway
Germany's A7 Autobahn is like a highway on steroids. The 500-mile, six-lane road runs the length of the country and handles 150,000 bat-out-of-hell drivers a day. That might improve life for traffic fetishists or people who regularly need to get from Denmark to Austria at 100 miles per hour, but people who live alongside the […]
-
America and Germany Getting Their Clean Energy Just Desserts
Germany is the unquestioned world leader in renewable energy. By mid-2011, the European nation generated over 20 percent of its electricity from wind and solar power alone, and had created over 400,000 jobs in the industry. The sweet German success is no accident, however, and the following pie chart illustrates the results of a carefully […]
-
Germany’s nuclear phaseout was the right thing to do
Photo: Dan ZelazoEver since Germany shut down eight of its nuclear power plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, nuclear proponents have raged against the decision. Their claim: This cannot possibly be good for the German economy, its energy security, or the climate. The latest example of this rage is a piece in The […]
-
Did Germany screw the planet by deep-sixing its nuclear plants?
Germany’s phaseout of nuclear power was a boneheaded move that has wreaked havoc with its power grid and cost consumers dearly, and it will hurt the planet by leading to more coal-fired power, says a feature by Aaron Wiener in The New Republic. But wait, says Grist’s own David Roberts! Germany did no such thing! […]