Interesting Links for 24-03-2021

[andrewducker]

Amazon sell sex toys. If your affiliate links to them are from a site with adult content then they'll drop you and keep the money you earned

(tags:Amazon sextoys OhForFucksSake )

Chances of eliminating Covid from UK or around the world 'close to zero'

(tags:pandemic thefuture )

One of the world's largest cargo ships is stuck blocking the Suez Canal

(tags:canal shipping epicfail )

UK seeks to drill more oil and gas from North Sea

(tags:oil gas UK globalwarming Doom )

How Penny Arcade manages PAX tickets - and why your idea to fix them won't work

(tags:tickets pennyarcade )

Boris Johnson faces barrage of criticism for claiming 'greed' is behind Covid vaccine success

(tags:vaccine UK BorisJohnson conservatives )

Unpaid environmental damages from fossil fuels are a $600B annual subsidy

(tags:environment usa electricity energy subsidies )

Comments

[nojay]

It's the gas, not the oil that's the key to this decision to licence more fossil fuel exploration in the North Sea. The Netherlands is losing the goldmine Groningen gas field in a couple of years so it will want more gas in the near future. The Germans are pushing for the Nord Stream II pipeline down the Baltic to be completed to double their supply of Russian gas. They're losing their nuclear generating capacity completely at the end of 2023 and they need fast-response gas turbines to keep the lights on when the weather gods don't oblige if they go too deeply down the 'renewables' rabbit-hole for electricity supply. The French are talking about getting out of the nuclear power generation biz and moving to cheap gas like everybody else in a couple of decades. The result is an expected large increase in demand for gas by 2050 across Europe.

Britain is planning and building a lot of new combined-cycle gas turbine generating plants and the Government wants to have a guaranteed gas supply to feed them without relying too much on outside actors who control the pipeline taps. The North Sea is the only place Britain can source that gas without on-land fracking which affects property prices and gets people to vote against the Conservatives.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, that's useful context.