Wagner Group linked to $2.5 billion in illicit gold trading — report
Globally, artisanal and small-scale gold mining accounts for about 20% of annual gold production.
A proposed levy on Germany’s oldest, most polluting coal-fired power plants has caused opponents to take to the streets.
Reuters reported on Saturday that thousands of coal miners and workers in coal-fired plants marched in Berlin. The government wants to impose penalties on the plants in order to cut coal-sector emissions by a further 22 million tonnes by 2020. But opponents say it puts 100,000 jobs at risk and will damage the coal industry:
In Berlin, a crowd estimated by police at 13,500 marched from the economy ministry to the chancellery holding placards that read, “Hands off our brown coal”, and “We oppose the social blackout in our region”.
Meanwhile, 6,000 environmental campaigners formed a human chain over 7 kilometers long at an open cast mine owned by RWE in Garzweiler, western Germany to protest against environmental damage caused by brown coal.
MINING.com reported last fall that Germany is likely to miss its 2022 climate targets and greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, as the country’s use of coal continues to increase.
In 2013 the share of electricity generated from coal in Europe’s biggest economy hit the highest in 24 years. The country also opened more coal-fired power plants in 2013 than any other time in the past 20 years as it moves towards a target set four years ago, which aims to have all nuclear power stations shut down by 2022. Meanwhile Germany’s energy revolution – or “Energiewende”- aims to move the country farther towards renewables but it has come at a high price. According to Bloomberg, as of September 2014 Energiewende has added more than $134 billion (100 billion euros) to the power bills of households, shop owners and small factories.
2 Comments
goldminor
Such a wasted effort over the last several decades while trying to switch to an energy source that is incapable of handling demand. The end result has been to further impoverish those who already struggle to get by on a day to day basis. And for what purpose? Co2 has increased in the atmosphere at a record clip during the last several decades, unprecedented. Yet global temperature has not risen by any significant amount in that time span. I have come to see this mad push by those who believe in catastrophic climate change as the greatest time of danger for the world in my 65 years of life.
Gary
To goldminor- I could not have said this better myself. Whether we like it or not, climate change has becomes the world’s new religion and this is going to be pursued despite any annoying facts to the contrary