That’s an interesting concept, sounds similar to the german WG (Wohngemeinschaft), but that’s, to my knowledge, also mostly used by younger people that are still studying or similar.

Should have mined bitcoin.

And since we’re already straying off topic, germany “recently” introduced a law where you have to limit rooftop solar production to 60% of the installed peak power (you’re not allowed to feed more than that back to the grid). Now I’m wondering whether I should start mining bitcoin at my parents place, despite my disgust for bitcoin. I’ll have to see whether I can get some E-waste to put together an appropriate rig, I’m definitely not getting new hardware for that, if at all.

I like your positive outlook on things, even if I personally don’t share it. I hope you can keep it :)

That’s a very unfortunate shortening of the title - it’s not sea levels, but rising sea temperatures that are causing the problems. Just like with thermal plants everywhere. In Europe the rivers get too hot to provide adequate cooling for the plants, so they face the same problem

I’m curious whether the 2000 Watt goal can be achieved without some kind of “degrowth”, but it’s hard to argue with the current approach, as it still sounds so much better than what most other nations are doing.

As for housing and apartment sizes, I think that’s a trend that’s visible in almost all developed nations. I’m not sure how it was in other European countries, but at least in Germany up until a few generations ago it was not that uncommon to live in a house with multiple generations. (That’s a point that maybe doesn’t really belong here, but one could argue that there is no “real” housing crisis - in the sense that it’s self-inflicted - as living space per person and the size of apartments have been increasing over the last few decades, so obviously there won’t be enough housing)

I wish that concept was more well-known. I think I stumbled upon it the first time when I read the ministry for the future. However that concept includes stuff that makes people get defensive very quickly. E.g. switching to a vegan diet, reducing reliance on cars or sharing living spaces with more people (I guess the last one is so far out there that many don’t even consider it).

Some of those things can probably be achieved otherwise, but it’s going to take way more resources than … well, not doing those things. Electric cars require more resources than public transport, reducing energy for heating per person requires more insulation if you live alone…

Does the implementation of this in Switzerland include approaches relating to degrowth or is it mostly based on technological improvements?

Yep. I mean… the wikipedia article is right there, linked in the comment… according to it, Switzerland had a primary energy consumption of 5.1 kW per person in 2008 and reached 4 kW per person in 2020. So still quite some way to go

It’s 2 kW total primary energy consumption, including everything. Transportation, industrial production, food production, your own electricity consumption, everything

You don’t need AI for that. Automated phone answering systems do exist, and can redirect people.

There also is a deposit on glass bottles in germany. Just not on all of them, but the same applies to plastic bottles

And I was worried it had something to do with the new anti-bot measures

Glad it was of use :)

That’s illegal, right?

It was nowhere in the article, just something that comes to my mind when new record lows are being reported. It was a bigger thing in the german news in 2022, I think.

Maybe it’s just not novel enough any more to make waves (ha) in the news, but since the rivers levels are lower than ever before, they definitely are visible.

My point (if there is one) is that people cry about economic problems, when we see markings explicitly left by people hundreds of years ago warning about famines. Sure, we have better ways of working around bad harvests, but once the problem becomes big enough even globalisation and our modern technology won’t help.

I found two (german) articles that mention Hungersteine/Hungerfelsen. In the wdr-video the Hungerstein they show is completely on dry land 💀

https://www1.wdr.de/nrw/duesseldorf/funde-rhein-niedrigwasser-100.html

https://ga.de/bonn/stadt-bonn/rhein-niedrigwasser-roemerhafen-hungersteine-bahntrasse_aid-93793303

That’s got to be doom metal 🤘🔥🤘

The low level of the Rhine could have economic consequences for several of Germany’s industries, such as the chemicals and steel, which depend on the river to transport large quantities of goods.

Cynicism aside, in the last few years, when there was another new record low, some “Hungersteine (hunger stones)” showed up in the rivers. The future’s looking bright.

<3

You do realize that events especially like this one get a lot of lurkers to create accounts? That doesn’t immediately mean that someone is botting

Oh, I know, I was more hinting at the probably austrian flag that’s forming next to it. “Keine Angst” is a nice song :)

That sounds awesome! All rays at once? Or one after the other?

Yes, same effect. I’ll just ignore it for now :D As long as everyone else says it’s looking nice I’m fine with it. Just wanted to make sure I’m not missing something