While Germany Is Headed for 80% Renewable Energy, We're Getting Left in the Dust

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

both - they use dryers and they also have drying racks. european washers and dryers are smaller than american ones - and of course, more efficient in water and electrical usage.

I have seen those. You can like barely wash one pair of jeans at a time. They are getting real popular in RV's, but nobody wants to fix them when they break.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

nice flip on the subject there. heating is done with gas - electricity only runs the water pump.

Indeed. Some still run on heating oil, too. And yet, even when you take it all together, the energy use of a household is much less there compared to what you would find in a comparable household here.

[Stressed Out 81]

Well I must say that with the insane waste of energy my parents use up each month in the US by letting their dogs in and out of their 8,000 square foot home, we pay only about $60 less than them with our 61 square meter apartment here in Germany. And we've probably got the cheapest bill on the whole street.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Well I must say that with the insane waste of energy my parents use up each month in the US by letting their dogs in and out of their 8,000 square foot home, we pay only about $60 less than them with our 61 square meter apartment here in Germany. And we've probably got the cheapest bill on the whole street.

They must not heat and cool that mansion. Sorry but that doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Your energy bill for a 61sqm apartment in Germany should not exceed EUR 100.00/month. That's the equivalent of $130.00. You do not get away with a $190.00/month energy bill for a 8,000 sqft home in the US. A home a third that size maybe but not an 8,000 sqft home. Not happening.

[justashooter 430]

And yet, their average electric bill is lower than that of the comparable US consumer. Bummer.

take al gore's house off the grid and it all changes...

[james&olya 1,121]

Biomass energy is TREES. They BURN TREES.

Perhaps not everyone is aware of this but biomass releases the very same amount of CO2 whether it is burned or if it just decomposes slowly and naturally on the forest floor. The only issue there is that a fully mature forest will have more carbon sequestered per acre than will the typical woodlot type operation, due to the difference in size of the trees.

Biomass includes trees but it also includes much more than that. Technically it also could include YOU!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Perhaps not everyone is aware of this but biomass releases the very same amount of CO2 whether it is burned or if it just decomposes slowly and naturally on the forest floor. The only issue there is that a fully mature forest will have more carbon sequestered per acre than will the typical woodlot type operation, due to the difference in size of the trees.

You want to try that again? Sequestered carbon is by definition not released as carbon dioxide. Rather, the byproducts of anaerobic decomposition are different, including more potent greenhouse gases, such as methane and ammonia.

[james&olya 1,121]

You want to try that again? Sequestered carbon is by definition not released as carbon dioxide. Rather, the byproducts of anaerobic decomposition are different, including more potent greenhouse gases, such as methane and ammonia.

Permanently sequestered carbon does not ever get released but there is nonetheless a great deal of carbon locked up in a revolving door kind of system in the mature tropical rainforests around the world. These do have a significant impact on CO2 release into the atmosphere when they go from mature rain forest to agricultural croplands! Methane, CH4, will deteriorate further to the more stable compounds of CO2 and H2O! Ammonia, NH3, has no carbon!

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Permanently sequestered carbon does not ever get released but there is nonetheless a great deal of carbon locked up in a revolving door kind of system in the mature tropical rainforests around the world. These do have a significant impact on CO2 release into the atmosphere when they go from mature rain forest to agricultural croplands! Methane, CH4, will deteriorate further to the more stable compounds of CO2 and H2O! Ammonia, NH3, has no carbon!

The methane is produced from carbon dioxide. See methanogens. CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2 H2O

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Ammonia, NH3, has no carbon!

I was confusing ammonia and nitrous oxide, which is a greenhouse gas. I was just checking a few studies that suggest increased levels of ammonia in the soil do not increase the emission of nitrous oxide, but I am still suspicious that is not the case.

[SMOKE 1,426]

Did America ever give the Germans clothes dryers or do they still hand their clothes to dry over there ?

idk about clothes. i know they bone their dogs.

THE German government is about to reintroduce a ban on bestiality, after pressure from animal welfare groups.

Newspaper die Tageszeitung reports that the governing coalition are soon to amend the country's Animal Welfare Act to make sex with animals punishable with a fine of up to 25,000 euros ($31,000).

Bestiality was legalised in Germany in 1969, the same year that gay sex was also removed from the criminal code. After that, sex with animals was only punishable if the animal was severely injured.

However animal welfare groups have pushed for the ban to be reinstated, in an advertising campaign that used dramatic examples of "animal rape".

Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner has agreed to change the law to make it illegal for people to "use (animals) for their own sexual activities or sexual acts of third parties" - which also bans the 'pimping' of animals to others.

However the move has aroused the ire of zoophile group ZETA.

Lobbyist Michael Kiok, who lives with his dog Cassie, told the newspaper there were more than 100,000 zoophiles in Germany.

"Mere morals have no place in law," he said.

Mr Kiok said he was worried that if the law took effect the authorities would try to take away his dog.

The amendment to the law will be debated in the German parliament in mid-December.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/germany-to-ban-sex-with-animals-report/story-fnddckzi-1226524544281

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

idk about clothes. i know they bone their dogs.

European sexual practices go from playful to the bizarre. Germany seems to be more of the later. What is with all the gas masks and smelling your own farts?

[SMOKE 1,426]

European sexual practices go from playful to the bizarre. Germany seems to be more of the later. What is with all the gas masks and smelling your own farts?

another reason we do NOT need to follow the European's lead.

[james&olya 1,121]

The methane is produced from carbon dioxide. See methanogens. CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2 H2O

Free hydrogen does not exist to any significant extent in the atmosphere. Remember the Hindenberg? The principal source for hydrogen in the atmosphere is in the form of H2O. That can be split into Hydrogen and Oxygen but it requires a source of energy to drive that reaction. How else could you produce energy by combining methane and oxygen (CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O)! Methane, like H2 molecules, when exposed to O2, reacts to release the stored chemical energy by the process of oxidation. This occurs as individual, random reactions or, under certain conditions, as a chain reaction catalyzed in part by the energy being released. This is called 'fire'. Reactions are driven in the direction that leads to the lowest energy level and/or the least degree of organization (entropy). CO2 wins that contest over CH4 under any normal atmospheric conditions!

Methane is unstable enough that it does not persist long in the atmosphere where it has contact with O2. It is more potent as a greenhouse gas while it lasts but CO2 persists far longer and is therefore a greater contributor over the 'lifetime' of the molecule!

Edited November 27, 2012 by james&olya

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Free hydrogen does not exist to any significant extent in the atmosphere.

Methanogens exist in anaerobic enviroments. We are talking about the forest floor, not thousands of feet in the atmosphere.