NoTricksZone: "Not here to worship what is known, but to question it" – Jacob Bronowski. Climate and energy news from Germany in English

German Energy Prices “Going Through The Roof”, Supply Tightens As Leaders Botch Energy Policy

By P Gosselin on 23. October 2021

Political energy mismanagement in Germany now risks inflicting tremendous pain on citizens as energy shortages intensify and prices skyrocket. Coming winter of discontent?

Energy prices going through the roof

By Fritz Vahrenholt, first published at Tichys Einblick
(Translated/edited by Pierre Gosselin)

Prices for natural gas, coal, oil and electricity have been rising massively since the middle of the year. The price of a kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity has almost tripled to 13 euro cents per kWh on the Leipzig wholesale electricity exchange.and the price of natural gas has increased fivefold.

Politics in Germany are not entirely uninvolved in the development of prices. The reasons are:

– Coal power phase-out between 2017 and 2021 throughout Europe and especially in Germany

– Tripling of CO2 certificate prices since 2020 from 20 to over 60 euros per ton of CO2. This also affects gas-fired power generation

– The switch from coal-fired power to more expensive gas-fired power

– Global increase in demand for gas as a result of the post-pandemic economic recovery

– Extremely weak German wind year from January to September 2021

Although Russia has delivered exactly the volumes of gas as ordered by gas importers, obviously not enough gas has been ordered, as even Chancellor Merkel admitted.

Electricity prices are also shooting up

Electricity prices for industry have tripled, and household electricity will rise from 31 euro-cent/kWh to around 40 euro cent/kwh. Well over half of the electricity price is taxes, surcharges and levies. There would be plenty of opportunity for the German government to reduce costs.

There won’t be electricity to power electric cars

Another serious problem will soon be the shortage of secure power generation because of Germany’s nuclear and the coal phase-out, which has already begun. Not only is this driving up prices. There will be risks of power supply outages during the winter, with possible targeted or involuntary shutdowns to keep the grid from collapsing.

By 2030, there will be neither power for a single additional electric car nor additional CO2-free power for industry. Never mind the heat supply.

Source:Fraunhofer ISE

Original article in German at Tichys Einblick

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Climate Politics, Green Follies | 3 Responses

German Energy Experts Warn Of Deindustrialization: “Saving World’s Climate From German Soil Is Illusory”

By P Gosselin on 22. October 2021

German experts are warning new upcoming government that German energy woes are very serious. “Exploding prices”…”plant closures irresponsible”…”dramatic de-industrialization”…saving climate from German soil “illusory”

Experts warn of Germany’s “illusory” global climate rescue fantasy. Photo copyright by P. Gosselin.

Germany’s national elections took place last month and currently the country socialist SPD, Greens and Freed Democrats are in negotiations to hammer out a coalition agreement. It’s expected that they’ll succeed in forming a new government led by the SPD’s Olaf Schultz.

One of the most pressing issues is Germany’s energy supply, where currently the country is in the adventurous process of phasing out baseload nuclear and coal generated power – a project the potential junior coalition partners The Greens want to see done by 2030!

To have any hope of doing so, Germany’s already massive wind energy capacity would have to be at least tripled – meaning wind parks would have to be erected in forests and the countryside – a measure natural conservationists are vehemently opposed to.

Also German energy prices have been exploding, and action must be taken quickly to address the issue.

Germany’ wind protest group EnergieVernunft Mitteldeutschland e.V. recently published a catalogue of demands for the new upcoming government. What follows is the press release:(subheadings added)

Berlin, October 19, 2021: In light of the worrying gas and electricity price developments, climate and energy experts from the SPD, CDU, and FDP parties — as well as energy experts and representatives of associations — criticized Germany’s climate and energy policies while calling for a package of measures to address the IPPC’s recommendations to secure the energy supply base of the Federal Republic.

Exploding prices

‘Exploding energy prices and supply bottlenecks are above all a sign of shortage, and against this background the closure of the last six nuclear power plants in the next 14 months is irresponsible,’ says Prof. Dr. Fritz Vahrenholt (SPD), former Senator for the Environment in Hamburg. ‘Instead, the recommendations of the IPCC should be followed, i.e. the use of nuclear power and CCS technologies,’ Vahrenholt continued.

Dramatic industrialization

Former Economics Minister of Saxony-Anhalt Dr. Horst Rehberger (FDP) is also sharply critical of the German energy transition. He said it had ushered in a dramatic de-industrialization. ‘Inexpensive and secure energy is essential for competitive industry. Expensive and unstable energy supply forces companies to migrate to other countries that allow competitive production with coal and nuclear energy.’

‘Illusory’ climate policy

The fact that wind turbines are also ecologically highly problematic is explained by agricultural scientist Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Merbach (CDU). He also emphasizes that saving the world’s climate from German soil is illusory and that no nation will follow Germany’s go-it-alone approach to climate and energy policy.

‘A business-as-usual approach is an aberration. Because if not counteracted, unimaginably high price effects and large-scale supply restrictions will be the result,’ added power plant engineer and book author Frank Hennig.

On the path to failure

‘The climate and energy policy of the Federal Government is on the path to failure – due to the laws of the physics, economics mathematical statistics,’ explains the speaker of over 1,000 citizen initiatives against wind power plants in the Federal Republic, Dr. Ing. Detlef Ahlborn.”

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Posted in Alternative Energy, Climate Politics | 2 Responses

GBR, Indian Ocean, South China Sea Corals Have Experienced No Obvious Modern Warming

By Kenneth Richard on 21. October 2021

New temperature reconstructions using coral skeletons as proxies reveal there has been no apparent net warming in the Great Barrier Reef, central Indian Ocean, and South China Sea since the 19th century – or even in recent decades.

Coral skeletons can be used as proxies to reconstruct 1870s-present sea surface temperatures “throughout the Great Barrier Reef”. Evidence of dramatic warming aligning with the post-1940s rise in CO2 emissions is absent in the reconstructions.

Wu et al., 2021

Image Source: Wu et al., 2021

The central Indian Ocean is home to a large swathe of the Earth’s coral reefs. The amplitude of the positive temperature anomalies (Tmax) during El Nino events was the same (1.4°C) in 1830-1929 as it was from 1965-1995. Peak anomalies in the 1600s and 1700s were, however, about 0.9°C warmer (2.2°C) than the peaks in the 19th and 20th centuries (1.3°C).

Leupold et al., 2021

Image Source: Leupold et al., 2021

A decreasing sea surface temperature (SST) trend of -0.1°C per decade has been documented along the coast of Guangdong, east of Hainan Island, and in the Taiwan Strait in the northern South China Sea during the last 20 years (1997-2018).

Ma et al., 2021

Image Source: Ma et al., 2021

The modern non-warming trend in the northern South China Sea can be extended to 1980 when using fossilized corals (Sr/Ca) to reconstruct SSTs.

Jiang et al., 2021

Image Source: Jiang et al., 2021

Posted in Cooling/Temperature, Coral Reefs, Paleo-climatology | 2 Responses

90% Vaccinated Senior Facility Sees “Massive” COVID Outbreak! And: COVID Alarmist Grabs Pfizer Cash

By P Gosselin on 20. October 2021

“Massive Corona outbreak” at German senior care facility where 90% were vaccinated.

At a German care facility for the elderly in Bad Doberan, near the Baltic port city of Rostock, 66 of its 83 residents tested positive for Corona while seven died in the hospital, reports the Nordkurier here.

“The vaccination rate is over 90 percent among its residents and about 70 percent among staff, “reports the Nordkurier, citing the care facility director of the senior center, Jolanta Armbrecht.

“In the past two weeks, eight residents have been hospitalized and seven have died, six of them in connection with a Corona infection,” said the director. “There has been a massive Corona outbreak at our inpatient facility.”

The latest German outbreak casts doubts over the claimed effectiveness of the vaccines. Earlier in the year, vaccine makers like Pfizer and Moderna claimed vaccine efficacy of over 95%, which led a to a mass global rollout. Over recent weeks, however, vaccine makers have and authroities have been forced to make downward corrections, with some recent estimates dipping under 40 percent.

Prominent German COVID alarmist-virologist taking Pfizer cash

Meanwhile at Twitter, prominent German COVID alarmist virologist Dr. Sandra Ciesek posted on a recent article published in the journal Blood.

Here a conflict of interest (COI) is revealed:

As they say: “Whose bread one eats, whose words one speaks.”

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Posted in Misc. | 13 Responses

Parasitic Ingrate Journalist? Well-Paid German Public Television Director Ecstatic Over Painful Energy Prices

By P Gosselin on 19. October 2021

The Japanese have a saying: “A satiated mouth quickly forgets its benefactor.”

Some would easily argue that this is the case with Detelf Flintz, a commentator and highly paid director at ARD German public television, which is funded in most part by legally mandatory license fees levied on every German household. Refusing to pay these fees could easily land you in prison.

Needless to say, Flintz enjoys a high and secured salary that the average public television fee payer could only dream of.

Energy price shock? “Good!”

Recently Flintz commented on the skyrocketing energy prices that we now see regular people across Europe struggling to cope with. You’d think you’d hear a little sympathy from privileged journalists like Flintz and the generously funded networks that pamper him. You’d be totally wrong.

In his recent commentary, Flintz snobbily stated on ARD television:

It’s there, the price shock. Good! Only when oil and gas are markedly more expensive, will we be able to get global warming under control. More wind and solar energy? We can’t wait that long, and so we should be happy that we are being forced to alter our consumer production, heat more sparingly. use less energy for the household, no short flights…”

Image cropped from tagesthemen

When he says “we”, he of course means “us” – and not him.

The comments unleashed a wave of outrage from the public. Yet the ARD sniffs and refuses to hear any of it. It’s time, after all, for the unwashed peasants to be put back where they belong – out fending for themselves in the cold mud.

German climate science critical site Die kalte Sonne comments:

The well-paid director Detlef Flintz (annual income approx. 120,000 euros + great benefits) is delighted about the rising energy prices. This is the only way for us to change our behavior. Us? With his salary, Flintz notices the rising prices about as much as an elephant notices the fly on its back, namely not at all. The fact that a large part of the population does not have such a salary does not even occur to him.

For every average wage earner, the energy price increases mean that savings have to be made elsewhere. While 30,000 euros for a new electric car may be a trifle for Flintz, for many people it is beyond their means. As an economist, Flintz should also know that the savings that now have to be made elsewhere have an impact on completely different areas of the economy. Every euro can only be spent once. But perhaps that’s too much for him to grasp.”

Perhaps Flintz should accept at 60% pay cut, that way he too would be forced to scale back his profligate consumption and energy use to a level that still would be higher than the average German public television fee-payer. At least then he would be taken a bit seriously.

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Posted in Lifestyles of the Rich and Alarmist | 6 Responses

2001-2019 Warming Driven By Increases In Absorbed Solar Radiation, Not Human Emissions

By Kenneth Richard on 18. October 2021

Three new studies affirm the increase in absorbed solar radiation associated with decreased reflection by clouds (albedo) has been the “root cause” of the positive Earth Energy Imbalance and global warming since the early 2000s.

Scientists (Loeb et al., 2021) have determined the rather uncertain positive trend in Earth’s Energy Imbalance (EEI) from 2005 to 2019, 0.5 W/m² ±0.47 W/m² per decade⁻¹, is “primarily due to an increase in absorbed solar radiation associated with decreased reflection by clouds.”

CERES satellite data indicate clouds and surface albedo account for 89% of the absorbed solar radiation trend in the 21st century, whereas anthropogenic greenhouse gases account for but a tiny fraction of the trends in combined absorbed solar radiation and greenhouse effect forcing (reductions in emitted thermal radiation) during this period.

This very small human emissions/greenhouse gas impact is represented by the red “Other” (“trace gases”) bars in the graph below. In emitted thermal radiation, graph (e) shows the greenhouse gas impact is effectively offset by the cloud influence; both factors are cancelled out by temperature changes. This leaves the increase in absorbed solar radiation shown in graph (d) due to natural variations in clouds and surface albedo (SFC) as the primary driver(s) of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) flux forcing during the last two decades.

Image Source: Loeb et al., 2021

Other scientists (Dübal and Vahrenholt, 2021) have also concluded that the positive TOA net flux (+1.42 W/m²) from increasing downwelling shortwave (SW) facilitated by a drop in cloudiness has been the “major driving effect,” “dominating influence,” and “major heating cause” explaining the 2001-2019 ocean heat content increase (240 ZJ).

The authors note these CERES satellite observations “conflict with the assumption further global warming originates mainly from the LW [longwave] radiation capture caused by greenhouse gases, i.e., a decline in outgoing LW.” In fact, the LW or greenhouse effect impact has been negative; it has contributed a net cooling influence (-1.1 W/m²) over the last two decades.

Image Source: Dübal and Vahrenholt, 2021

The summarizing text from another new study (Ollila, 2021) bluntly asserts the substantial increase in downwelling SW radiation from 2000-2019 demonstrates “there are natural climate drivers that have rapid and significant temperature impacts exceeding the anthropogenic drivers,” and that any temperature increase since 2015-’16 “cannot be due to anthropogenic reasons.”

Image Source: Ollila, 2021

These newer studies affirming the 21st increase in absorbed solar radiation has driven modern warming are further substantiated by a 2020 Nature journal paper (Delgado-Bonal et al., 2020) extending the positive (+3 W/m²) cloud-albedo SW impact back to 1980.

[S]hortwave radiation is the main driver in the dynamics and plays a major role in the energy balance by affecting the longwave radiation field.”

“Our research supports the idea that clouds and albedo, which ultimately determine the SW radiation, are variables of the utmost importance for current climate change, in agreement with previous research about the changes in stratocumulus or energy imbalance in the last four decades for example. An increase in cloud coverage of 0.1 would, on average, lead to a 7% increase in spectrally integrated global average reflectance of shortwave radiation.”

Image Source: Delgado-Bonal et al., 2020

Posted in Cloud Climate Influence, Solar Sciences | 16 Responses

September Mean Temps In Northern Europe See Little Change Over Past Decades…Snow, Frost Arrive

By P Gosselin on 17. October 2021

By Kirye
and Pierre

Today we look at September mean temperatures at the stations across northern Europe for which the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) have enough data. We find fall is not being pushed back as we should expect in a warming world.

The JMA has published the data for September and again we see a continuing warming hiatus.

First we look at the September trends from 6 stations in Ireland since 1991:

Data: JMA

In Ireland, three stations have warmed in September while three have cooled. Taken altogether, there’s been very little notable change – certainly nothing alarming is going on.

Sweden

Next we look at Sweden September mean temperature trends using (unaltered) JMA data:

Data: JMA

Four of six stations in Sweden have seen a cooling September trend since 1997, long before Greta Thunberg was even born. Already back in mid September parts of Sweden got socked by up to 80 cm of snow!

Finland

Finally we look at the trends at 6 stations in Finland, going back close to 2 decades:

Data: JMA

Half of the stations in Finland have seen cooling and three have seen warming. Interesting is that the rural, far northern stations have warmed, while the southern stations where the larger cities are found have cooled. All in all, autumn over northern Europe is obviously coming right on time, without delay, like it used to do in the past.

Record early snow

Snow hit Finland early this year as well, already on September 14th. According to the online https://mkweather.com/.

Parts of Finland, including of metropolitan area of Oulu experienced on Tuesday, 14. September 2021 with the first snow of the season!

A snowstorm hit mainly Lapland and parts of the northern half of the country and on roads, several centimeters of snow layer appeared immediately after a few hours of snowing.”

It was the earliest snowfall in history for Vaala Pelso, in central Finland.

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Posted in Cooling/Temperature, Misc. | 1 Response

Robert Koch Institute Latest Data: One Third Of Recent Age 60+ COVID Deaths In Germany Were Fully Vaccinated!

By P Gosselin on 16. October 2021

Russian state German language RT news site here looks at just how effective the COVID vaccines have been in Germany over the last 4 weeks, citing data from official institutes, and finds the German government is misleading the public.

Alarming number of COVID deaths in Germany are fully vaccinated persons. Cropped from RT here.

False promises

When Germans watch their ARD/ZDF German state public television networks, they are “informed” that the vaccines distributed in Germany are really effective and that the only people ending up in the hospitals with serious cases of COVID are the unvaccinated, who have become the latest misfits of society. Today the unvaccinated are being blamed for the country’s problems.

Politicians and leading media warned of a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” and that intensive care units were seeing more and more “younger unvaccinated people.”

Robert Koch Institute: Many sick and dying are fully vaccinated

But of course the data show the reality is very different. The vaccines in Germany are not working out to be anything at all like originally promised just a half year ago. A number of people are seeing serious COVID vaccine side effects. More and more “fully vaccinated” people are occupying hospital beds and a dying of COVID. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) data confirm this.

In Europe, the vaccine situation has become so dismal, in fact, that Sweden, Iceland and Denmark have recently pulled certain vaccines off the market for certain age groups because of unacceptably high risks.

Rapidly rising breakthrough cases

Now Russian RT German-language news site reports on Germany: “One in three ‘COVID deaths’ in last four weeks was fully vaccinated.”

In the latest RKI weekly report published on Thursday, all the way down the report on page 23, it is stated that over the past four weeks — from September 13 to October 10– there has been a “much higher proportion of so-called vaccination breakthroughs – with an upward trend,” RT reports. “55.4 percent, i.e. more than half of the symptomatically ill Corona patients in the over-60 age group had already been vaccinated twice.”

More than half fully vaccinated age 60 and up

“Among younger adults, the rate of “vaccination breakthroughs” recorded in this way was 31.6 percent. Overall, therefore, 35,079 of 100,039 COVID-19 patients with symptoms had been vaccinated twice in the past four weeks, or about 35 percent, or more than one-third,” reports the RT.

40% hospitalized are vaccine breakthroughs, age 60+

The recent figures fly in the face of claims made by media and government that the vaccines protect people against serious infections. “In the 60-plus age group, the federal institute counted nearly 40 percent of hospitalized Corona patients as “vaccine breakthroughs,” while among younger adults it put their share at 15.3 percent. […] One-third of Corona deaths were fully vaccinated.”

RT notes that the RKI itself debunks claims of “almost only unvaccinated” are in the intensive care units. 141 of 490 intensive care patients over age 60 were “vaccine breakthroughs” in the four weeks between mid-September and mid-October.

1/3 of deceased fully vaccinated

The RT goes on to note that “a total of 155 out of 480 deceased persons were fully vaccinated, i.e. 32.3 percent, or almost one third. In the 60-plus age group, in which the vast majority died, the proportion of ‘vaccination breakthroughs’ among the dead was as high as almost 35 percent.”

The RT also suggests that Germany’s Federal Ministry of Health is not playing honest with the figures it presents to the public, claiming the German Ministry of Health “is still propagating the figures from the first studies with which the vaccine manufacturers received approval at the end of 2020” and continues “to attribute 95 percent efficacy to Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines” although today this is clearly not the case.

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Posted in Activism, Alarmism | 20 Responses

When 2 Parents Tried To Make Their Young Daughter Practice What Greta Preaches…All Hell Broke Loose!

By P Gosselin on 15. October 2021

You think FFF kids are mad at their parents for trashing the planet? That’s nothing compared to their anger when you ask them to walk the talk.

Angry Greta. Image cropped here.

At FaceBook, two German parents of a young schoolgirl decided that if their daughter was going to skip school on Fridays and demand the rest of the world start being responsible for the planet as Greta and Fridays For Future prescribe, then she should begin to do so at home.

Well, that didn’t go over too well.

Here’s what the two parents wrote:

Thanks Greta…. thanks Fridays For Future!

Oh oh… doors slamming, loud screaming

Our daughter recently got back from more stupid FFF truancy. She was teed off because we didn’t pick her up (climate friendly) and so she had to tough it out in a bus and train for 3 hours to get home.

After having a chalky vegan soy cake (only for her – we had real cheesecake) there was a surprise. She now has to take the bus to school in the morning. But that’s a drag, because the bus only leaves every hour and she either arrives at school an hour early or arrives too late. We suggested to stop heating the bus, because it still uses oil. But she also doesn’t want to go by bicycle because of all the hills and grades – besides soon it’ll be winter and it’s too cold and windy. But she says she might consider the option if she gets an e-bike for Christmas.

“Christmas? But that’s totally anti-eco,” I told her. “All those lights and CO2 emissions from candles!” This sparked the first pre-pubescent protest, which was amazingly similar to her defiant phase between the ages of 2 and 3. ‘E-bike? Hasn’t our little daughter even seen the devastated areas that result from the extraction of rare earths for the batteries?’

Now she’s sitting upstairs in her room at 8°C (46°F), moping. We have already turned off the heat there to be ecologically conscious. Maybe she’s keeping her fingers warm typing angry mails about her “shitty parents” to her friends on her i-Phone. But here we’ve announced to her that she will be rid of this iPhone at 7 pm. After all, it’s irresponsible to keep wasting electricity to have more or less useful conversation and, secondly: again the lithium extraction and its ecological consequences.

In response to her protests against this expropriation, we assured her in a calm voice that we would either send the iPhone directly to needy children in Africa, or sell it and then donate the financial equivalent to help save the South American rainforest.

But the real fun starts on Monday. That’s when we swap out her trendy clothes for jute, wool and hemp fiber woven stuff. Her Nikes with the cool plastic soles will be replaced by Dutch wooden shoes. And if someone thinks this is satire: No, we are GOING THROUGH IT!

If she then still screeches on, she has two possibilities:
1) recognize what brainless eco-fascists she’s listening to
2) recognize what brainless eco-fascists she’s listening to!

Thank you Greta. You have inspired us, as no one else would have done in educational matters. Mommy and I have just shouted up to our daughter: ‘We’re going to Mc Donald’s, want to come along?’ We hope the hysterical screaming will stop by the time we get back.'”

Every parent should make their activist children really practice what they preach.

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Posted in Activism | 13 Responses

4 More New Reconstructions Affirm The Medieval Warm Period Was ‘Warmer Than Today’

By Kenneth Richard on 14. October 2021

From Russia to the Indian Ocean to Antarctica, surface temperatures were much warmer than they are today during Medieval times.

1. The Eastern Russia region was 1.5°C warmer than now during the Medieval Warm Period. The modern warm-up began centuries ago and temperatures have declined in the last few centuries. Relative sea levels were 1 m higher than now 1,000 years ago.

Nazarova et al., 2021

Image Source: Nazarova et al., 2021

2. Scientists use coral fossil evidence to suggest mean sea surface temperatures (SST) during the Medieval Climate Anomaly were “warmer than today”. At the two Indian Ocean study sites, there has been no obvious SST warming since 1982.

Yudawati Cahyarini et al., 2021

Image Source: Yudawati Cahyarini et al., 2021

3. The modern (1994-2004) surface temperatures in the South China Sea are colder now than any time in the last 6000 years. Except for a brief interval ~500 years ago, SSTs have been consistently 2-4°C warmer than today since the middle Holocene.

Zhou et al., 2021

Image Source: Zhou et al., 2021

4. Modern sea ice extent for Antarctica’s Ross Sea is more extensive today (and temperatures cooler) than nearly any time in 6000 years. It was warmer with less sea ice 1.6 to 0.7k years ago. Penguin numbers decline with cooling/increased sea ice.

Xu et al., 2021

Image Source: Xu et al., 2021

Posted in Medieval Warm Period, Paleo-climatology | 4 Responses

Injunction Ruling Against YouTube/Google Censorship! Removal Of Lockdown-Critical Videos “Illegal”

By P Gosselin on 13. October 2021

YouTube suffered a major legal blow earlier this week on censorship. It’s a huge victory for free speech and the democratic right to open, unobstructed discussion on online platforms.

“Violate our guidelines” is no adequate basis… “must be more specific”

Cologne Regional Court rules that YouTube’s removal of government/lockdown/WHO-critical videos made by group of prominent COVID-lockdown critics was illegal. Reasons have to be “specific”. Symbol image, cropped here.

A group of government and lockdown-critical German actors, performers and artists of the action #allesaufdentisch (everything on the table) scored a major win in a Cologne-Germany court against YouTube!

YouTube gets taken to court, and loses!

Yesterday we reported here how YouTube had removed videos posted by prominent German actors who criticized the German government in what appeared to targeted censorship of legitimate views. But the prominent group of actors and artists refused to stand silent and took legal action against YouTube, a platform owned by mighty Google.

Represented by Hamburg attorney Joachim Steinhoefel, the case was taken to a regional court in Cologne.

Deletion of the videos “illegal”

“The Cologne Regional Court issued an injunction, ruling that YouTube’s deletion of the videos was illegal,” reported Bild, which has a copy of the court order. “According to the court, the deletion of the videos in which the artists interviewed Leipzig mathematics professor Stephan Luckhaus (68) and neurobiologist Gerald Hüther (70) was ‘unjustified’.”

The court found that YouTube citing the content “violate our guidelines on medical misinformation” is an adequate basis for deletion and that the platform must be more specific.

“Far too vague”

Especially problematic: “claims about vaccinations against Covid-19 that contradict the consensus expert opinion of local health authorities or the World Health Organization (WHO).”

According to the Cologne Court, YouTube’s was “far too vague”.

According to Bild: “YouTube did not explain which specific statements were classified as problematic” and that “the artists were not informed which passage of the video is said to have violated the guidelines”.

YouTube is obligated to specify precisely what the problem is, and cannot rely on vague reasons, the court rules.

Bild adds:

Even more: YouTube was only allowed to delete videos in the case of ‘an obvious, at first glance recognizable medical misinformation’ without naming concrete problematic passages. In the case of the deleted videos of #allesaufdentisch, however, it is a matter of ‘longer videos’ that ‘also contain a large number of clearly permissible statements.'”

Clear message to “censorship machinery of the monopolist YouTube”

Lawyer Joachim Steinhoefel was delighted by the Cologne Court ruling, and told BILD: “The Civil Chamber 28 of the Regional Court of Cologne has made it clear to the censorship machinery of the monopolist YouTube within hours that constitutional boundaries have been crossed here.”

The some members of the group of actors spoke to Bild on their motives behind the government critical videos: “We are trying to talk to people. That’s democracy. To erase our voices is the sad opposite of that.”

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Posted in Activism | 7 Responses

Major Blow To YouTube Germany Censorship…Court Orders Reinstatement Of Removed Corona-Critical Videos

By P Gosselin on 12. October 2021

Outrage over YouTube censor of Corona and government-critical videos made by dozens of leading German actors.

“YouTube is no Truth Commission”…court rules against social media giant.

Original image cropped from allesaufdentisch.

Dozens of prominent German actors have banded together as part of the “allesaufdentisch” (everything on the table) freedom of expression campaign to demand a more open discussion on the Corona virus and the controversial government policies, rules and regulations. Their statements were posted in the form of short videos on YouTube.

In the recent months, views critical of government Corona policies and vaccines have been suppressed by the major media.

“Increasing concern” over political actions

At their allesaufdentisch site, the group of leading actors, performers, artists state: “We are watching the development of political action in the Corona crisis with increasing concern. Many experts have not yet been heard in the public Corona debate. We would like to see a wide-ranging, fact-based, open and factual discourse and also an equally wide-ranging discussion of the videos.”

Each actor posted a YouTube video criticizing the current suppressive policies. See background here.

YouTube takes down critical videos, citing “totally vague” reasons

Not surprisingly, YouTube has since moved and taken down some of the videos, citing totally vague reasons such as “violating community guidelines.”

Yesterday German national leading daily Bild below reported on YouTube’s controversial removal of the videos:

#Corona-Zensur bei #YouTube! Die Plattform hat mehrere kritische #allesaufdentisch-Videos gelöscht – ohne klare Begründung. „YouTube ist keine Wahrheitskommission, die entscheidet, was richtig und was falsch ist“, sagt BILD-Meinungschef @fpiatov bei #BILD-Live. pic.twitter.com/D5vEw7oAem

— BILD (@BILD) October 11, 2021

According to the Bild journalist Filipp Piatov, three of the “allesaufdentisch” videos had been removed by YouTube. This immediately sparked an outcry on overzealous limits on freedom of expression.

No specific reasons

On why YouTube blocked the videos, Piatov comments the reasons provided by YouTube were “totally abstract” and “vague”: “I asked YouTube yesterday, and asked them for clarity and what is concretely the violation. And so far there’s been no reply,” said Piatov. “The artists don’t know why these videos were removed. We’re talking about them being bluntly silenced.”

New dimension of legal violation by YouTube

The group of actors and actresses have hired high profile Hamburg attorney Joachim Steinhoefel, who tweeted his reaction to YouTube’s removal of the film and failing to cite specific reasons for the move. In his tweet, Steinhöfel calls YouTube’s move “the sad opposite” of democracy and that he sees “a new dimension of legal violation by YouTube”.

What’s especially upsetting is that some of the videos taken down were interviews with leading experts, who legitimately pointed out recent, gross errors made by the government institutes. “Harmless videos that were simply deleted,” Bild’s Piatov notes.

False facts no grounds for removing videos

When asked if the videos indeed contained controversial content justifying removal, Piatov said there was none, adding “A false fact is not reason for a deletion.” Otherwise, many video statements made by government authorities would need to be taken down as well.

YouTube “no Truth Commission”

“YouTube is not a factchecking platform, not a Truth Commission that gets to decide what’s right and what’s wrong,” said Piatov. “Who is YouTube? Is it a University? Is it a panel of virologists who sit and watch all these videos and say this one, from the 100 million that got uploaded, we’re going to delete?”

Court rules against YouTube

The latest reports is that prominent Hamburg Internet media attorney Joachim Steinhoefel, representing the group of actors, has since convinced a German court to order YouTube to reinstate the removed videos. More on that tomorrow.

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"Not here to worship what is known, but to question it" - Jacob Bronowski. Climate and energy news from Germany in English - by Pierre L. Gosselin

Energy prices going through the roof

New temperature reconstructions using coral skeletons as proxies reveal there has been no apparent net warming in the Great Barrier Reef, central Indian Ocean, and South China Sea since the 19th century – or even in recent decades.

Image Source: Wu et al., 2021

Image Source: Leupold et al., 2021

Image Source: Ma et al., 2021

Image Source: Jiang et al., 2021

Three new studies affirm the increase in absorbed solar radiation associated with decreased reflection by clouds (albedo) has been the “root cause” of the positive Earth Energy Imbalance and global warming since the early 2000s.

Image Source: Loeb et al., 2021

Image Source: Dübal and Vahrenholt, 2021

Image Source: Ollila, 2021

[S]hortwave radiation is the main driver in the dynamics and plays a major role in the energy balance by affecting the longwave radiation field.”

Image Source: Delgado-Bonal et al., 2020

From Russia to the Indian Ocean to Antarctica, surface temperatures were much warmer than they are today during Medieval times.

Image Source: Nazarova et al., 2021

Image Source: Yudawati Cahyarini et al., 2021

Image Source: Zhou et al., 2021

Image Source: Xu et al., 2021

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