Russia and Ukraine

[Leonardo17]

- All of these issues are also showing us how wrong the “Drill baby drill” mentality is problematic. And it cannot work for Europe at all.

 
The Chinese are heavily electrifying almost all of their land-transport system. Europe and America need to do the same.
 
The only real solution here is to make all of this pipelines unimportant for the economy and to not be threatened by some maritime routes being blocked by this or that unfriendly actor. 

[Thumpalumpacus]

The Chinese are heavily electrifying almost all of their land-transport system. Europe and America need to do the same.

Much of that electricity is still generated by fossil fuels of one sort or another.

[Fireball]

The Chinese are heavily electrifying almost all of their land-transport system. Europe and America need to do the same.

Much of that electricity is still generated by fossil fuels of one sort or another.

China's main supply of electricity is from the Three Gorges Dam, iirc. It has been declared safe, but again, iirc, it has serious problems. Most of China's manufacturing is supplied by hydroelectric power from that dam. I'd be willing to bet that the condition of that dam is a driver for solar electrification. Bonus is cleaner air. Anyone seen pics of the air in Beijing? Looks like London 150 years ago. I've seen reports that detail the devastation if the dam lets go. We're talking stuff and people washing up on the shores of the US. Not wishing that on anyone.

[Thumpalumpacus]

China is trying to wean, but they're still reliant upon coal, to everyone's detriment.

[The Grand Nudger]

China is doing the rational thing. Using ff energy and ff products to manufacture and expand a sustainable grid. Even if a person didn’t believe climate change were an issue…they ought to be livid at the flippant use of such a dense and valuable set of fuels and products. All the toys and clothes floating around in the ocean could have been fertilizer for food, fuel to cook it, medical devices, and high tech swag.

[Leonardo17]

I’ve also heard that they already have 2 months of petroleum available that is ready to use when they decide to invade Taiwan and the US imposes a blockade on them.
 
China and India are both heavily investing in solar and wind power but both of them are still heavily investing in coal plants too.
 
On a general environmental level, it is possible that China will be very dependent on agricultural imports because it will not be able to feed itself due to the enormous environmental impact of decades of industrialization that almost entirely disregards the issue of environmental protection.
 
But they are still ahead of everyone in electrification.

[The Grand Nudger]

Or two months to keep industry afloat when even chinese and russian boats can no longer make it safely through the straights. One would hope that china does not immediately make the same mistake that they've watched their russian friends make, only harder.

[Ivan Denisovich]

Some weird shit is happening in russia:

At the same time, a culling of cattle is underway in Siberia. It began in the Novosibirsk Oblast, where veterinary officials simply showed up at farmers’ premises and began euthanizing the cattle, which were then burned. They cited a disease, though no one mentioned its name.

According to the farmers, their cows were healthy and showed no signs of illness, so protests began. Veterinary officials started arriving under police escort. The practice spread to neighboring regions, but no one was providing an explanation of what was going on. In Novosibirsk, local authorities mentioned pasteurellosis, but epidemiologists were scratching their heads because this bacterial infection can be effectively treated with antibiotics, and such a large-scale response is unnecessary in this case.

Videos have appeared online showing people trying to find out anything about the situation at local government offices. They ask what kind of disease is being fought so radically, and in response they hear only that it is “very dangerous.” At the same time, no one mentions anything about compensation or any other safety measures, such as removing beef from the market.

One of the first theories to emerge is that the food market is being divided up, and large agricultural conglomerates, such as Miratorg (which is allegedly linked to Dmitry Medvedev and his family), want to squeeze out individual farmers. Calls have therefore emerged to boycott Miratorg’s products, but logically it’s hard to see the connection here, since the company operates in central Russia, several thousand kilometers away from the farms that are currently being destroyed.

So theories of a larger scale are emerging: what if a dangerous strain of bacteria, a “lab virus,” escaped from a laboratory? It just so happens that Vektor, the Russian State Scientific Center for Virology and Biotechnology, is headquartered near Novosibirsk, and there is a widespread belief that it has been working on biological weapons since its founding in the 1970s.

[...]

As if that weren’t enough, one of Putin’s most ardent defenders, Ilya Remeslo, came out with scathing criticism of the war, Putin, and the entire Russian power structure. The day after this inexplicable outburst, he found himself in a psychiatric hospital. Russians have never come to terms with Stalinist terror or the subsequent Soviet repressions. But even in a place where selective amnesia reigns, all these events—the war, censorship, the forcible confiscation of livestock, and so-called punitive psychiatry—are causing unease.

So if they shut down the internet in Moscow without any explanation, if they’re openly blocking Telegram, if they’re killing cows for no reason, if Putin’s supporters are calling Putin a war criminal, what lies ahead for us? This question isn’t just on Buzova’s mind; more and more Russians are asking it of themselves. Will they cut off the power? Will food disappear? What’s going on here? What will happen?*

Part about cows is strange but I suppose even russia might act somewhat rational and not killing it for funsies. putler being criticized by his allegedly most loyal though? Now that's interesting and putting dude in psychiatric hospital is a cherry on the top and continuation of "best" Brezhnev tradition.

*Link to original article in Polish: https://krytykapolityczna.pl/swiat/rosja...tu-teorie/

[Fake Messiah]

Putin sends childless Russian women to psychologists

Under guidelines overseen by the health ministry, women who answer negatively to questions in a medical history survey about whether they intend to have children will be encouraged to seek psychological support.

“It is recommended to send the patient to a consultation with a medical psychologist with the goal of forming a positive attitude towards having children,” according to the advice.

In 2024, Russia recorded its lowest annual total births since 1999 at 1.2 million. Alexei Raksha, a demographer, said last year that the first quarter of 2025 had seen the lowest number of births in the country in two centuries.

The crisis has been exacerbated by the full-scale war. As many as 325,000 Russian men have been killed in Ukraine since February 2022. According to data from early 2025, deaths in Russia outnumbered births by an average of 1.6 to 1.

In the immediate aftermath of the full-scale invasion, hundreds of thousands of Russians also emigrated from the country, many of whom were men of military age seeking to evade mobilisation.

By the early 2040s, the number of children and teenagers is expected to fall by more than a quarter, which could threaten Vladimir Putin’s ability to replenish Russia’s armed forces for future war efforts.

A raft of aggressive new policies aimed at addressing the issue have seen payouts for pregnant schoolgirls and campaigns to create “conditions for romantic relations” among young people.

One regional official last year suggested “digital abstinence” legislation to ban childless Russian couples from spending time on social media late at night, with the implication that they might use the time to procreate instead.

In October last year, Tatyana Golikova, the Russian deputy prime minister, announced the creation of a federal pregnancy register to monitor the outcome of women’s pregnancies as human rights groups warned it could infringe on women and girls’ right to privacy.

Although abortion remains officially legal in Russia, at least 31 of Russia’s 83 federal subjects have introduced de facto full or partial bans on the procedure.

Authorities also have outlawed what they describe as Western “propaganda” promoting childfree lifestyles, under which individuals can be fined up to 400,000 rubles (£3,500) for promoting life without children.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...hologists/