Notices by Bastian Allgeier (bastianallgeier@mastodon.social)

@thomasfuchs 💯 Water rationing will be coming to various places in Germany this summer. First cities already started announcing dangerous levels in their reservoirs. A quarter of Bavaria's lakes are already at a low point because it didn't snow enough in the Alps this winter. France is reducing the output of its nuclear plants because the rivers are overheating. The future is visible everywhere when you really want to look at it, but a lot of people don't want to make that connection at all.

@thomasfuchs I went through the pain of actually looking at it a couple years ago. I was completely ignorant before as well. I thought we are all going to be clever enough to not let anything catastrophic really happen. Realising that we are about to loose everything, because we are too stupid to protect our own planet is so heavy. I think most people just prefer to keep on looking away. I think it's a mental health protection mechanism.

@thomasfuchs Oh, I wholeheartedly agree on all those points.

@thomasfuchs When temperatures exceed the averages by that much as we currently see it in Europe, nature is not able to adapt fast enough. Animals and plants can't simply buy an AC. In the EU and the UK we are also already starting to see massive water shortages. Infrastructure in general is not built for those temperatures and you can't retrofit it fast enough and not without gigantic investments in times when there's no money for anything. It's a multi-crisis

All trains in Germany are currently stopped because their communication system is down.

It's very much on brand. The Deutsche Bahn was never good at connecting trains.

Google's plans from this year's I/O are beyond dystopian. @matthiasott is doing a great job to summarize it all: https://matthiasott.com/notes/ad-infinitum

We use 32 million ha of land globally (ca. 1 Germany) to grow plants for biofuels. This equals 1.400 TWh per year, or 4% of our global energy consumption for transport.

If we'd use the same area for PV, we could produce 32.000 TWh per year, already considering the potential yield for the areas where we grow bio fuel plants.

For comparison: the entire world consumed 31.000 TWh of electricity in 2024.

I love such comparisons.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBgNpooCEo

How good is https://walkman.land? 🥰 It's the most amazing trip down memory lane to find my old model from when I was a teenager: https://walkman.land/sony/wm-dd33 I can still feel the push of the buttons when I see the pictures and I hear the motor fast-forwarding, while sitting in the bus to school.

I recently came across this chart for our total energy consumption in Germany for 2024 and the biggest circle is the red one for fuel in the transport column. 644 TWh 🤯

Only about 20% of the energy in fuel is converted into movement, the rest is wasted as heat. (80% of 644 TWh = 515 TWh)

According to the Federal Environment Agency, all private households used 465 TWh to heat our homes in 2024.

Let that (heat)sink in: We produce more excess heat by burning fuel than we need for heating.

I just recevied an interesting phishing attempt via @getkirby's email support.

1. Someone claimed to have issues with our site. I asked for details and they sent me a link to a screenshot
2. The screenshot was hosted on Google Sites. Weird choice, but not totally unusual so far. People often send screenshots that are hosted somewhere. E.g. via CleanShot or similar tools.
3. I verified the domain and got a "I'm not a robot" capture first. So far, still plausible enough.
4. Then I got this …

The majority of the tech industry has no valid vision how to contribute to a liveable future for humanity on this planet. Their dystopian fantasies don’t match with human needs. That’s why we will keep sliding from one bubble to the next. Everything has to be artificially inflated to hide the massive abyss of meaninglessness behind it all.

Reading the shocked reactions that Apple and Google removed ICE warning apps from their stores, I think that more should probably read about the role of IBM during the holocaust. Can we please finally get rid of the fairytale of social corporate responsibility in big tech?

German politician Nico Semsrott has suggested that we give billionaires one year to solve the climate crisis. If they fail to do so, we should dispossess them. I think that’s a wonderful idea! It's never going to happen, but it's nice to dream.

Note to myself: Focus on good news. Focus on good people. Focus on things that can be changed by us directly.

"A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute"

The only appropriate way to talk about this: https://www.zeit.de/kultur/2025-01/elon-musk-hitlergruss-amtseinfuehrung-donald-trump

History is repeating and the results will stay the same. There's no option that the fascists are going to be on the right side this time. There's also no option that anyone gets away with "I didn't know" or "I was part of the resistance" or some other shit. We are all watching it live on our devices and everything's on record. Look closely at the opportunists and those who switch sides. We'll need this for later.

On a more serious note: The mechanics are so well documented and yet they can be repeated almost one to one. It’s our fault this time.

When you spent half your time in the German school system learning and wondering about how the third reich could have happened, it’s quite annoying when it’s on replay today in a matter of a few months.

I’m slightly exaggerating. But only slightly.

When Musk calls you a traitor to the German people, you are obviously doing something right.

For my English speaking followers, who are not fully aware of how bad the AfD truly is, here's a fact-checked list of AfD quotes from the last years: https://www-volksverpetzer-de.translate.goog/analyse/afd-zitate/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

This is the party that Musk just endorsed.