<story><title>How does the land use of different electricity sources compare?</title><url>https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-per-energy-source</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cycomanic</author><text>The communications around nuclear at the moment are fascinating. I think we are really witnessing a massive PR campaign trying to take advantage of the war in Ukraine.&lt;p&gt;Everyone is talking about the gas imports from Russia, while nobody talks about oil imports which are not very different (using todays prices the EU imported around 300 billion euro worth of gas and 62 billion worth of oil in 2021. They are obviously over estimates because I used last year&amp;#x27;s volumes with todays prices).&lt;p&gt;On top of that many publications talk as if electricity from other sources could easily replace gas, which is also incorrect. Germany which is often criticised generates less than 10% of electricity from gas, similar to France who are the nuclear poster child (that is because gas and nuclear are used for different purposes). Most of the gas in Germany is used for heating and industrial processes.&lt;p&gt;On top of that we see articles (this isn&amp;#x27;t the first) who try to reframe the question of energy consumption around land use, which is a complete red hering, designed to make nuclear look more advantageous.&lt;p&gt;Finally, nobody talks how the situation at the Zaporizhzhia is an illustration of the significant security implications of nuclear. I mean Europe has not been this close to a nuclear disaster in more than 30 years and people arguing we should build more nuclear plants?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mdf</author><text>&amp;gt; On top of that we see articles (this isn&amp;#x27;t the first) who try to reframe the question of energy consumption around land use, which is a complete red hering, designed to make nuclear look more advantageous.&lt;p&gt;I wonder, what&amp;#x27;s your opinion on these two matters:&lt;p&gt;- the sixth mass extinction&lt;p&gt;- carbon sinks&lt;p&gt;In my opinion as a concerned environmentalist, they are both extremely important and need immediate actions to have even a small chance of being somewhat remedied. Land use is an important facet of how exactly we are destroying the environment and as such it does make sense to consider it as one of the dimensions when planning energy production.&lt;p&gt;And to be clear, there are lots of species that don&amp;#x27;t just accept any &amp;quot;close enough&amp;quot; environment as their living place. For example, willow tits in Finland are endangered because here they mainly live in old forests that include dead trees – unacceptable for timber and pulp industry.&lt;p&gt;Edit: I want to emphasize that I don&amp;#x27;t see land use concerns as an attempt to reframe the question, limiting the dimensions the energy sector is thought of. Rather, IMO it&amp;#x27;s a welcome important additional feature to think of.</text></comment>
<story><title>How does the land use of different electricity sources compare?</title><url>https://ourworldindata.org/land-use-per-energy-source</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>cycomanic</author><text>The communications around nuclear at the moment are fascinating. I think we are really witnessing a massive PR campaign trying to take advantage of the war in Ukraine.&lt;p&gt;Everyone is talking about the gas imports from Russia, while nobody talks about oil imports which are not very different (using todays prices the EU imported around 300 billion euro worth of gas and 62 billion worth of oil in 2021. They are obviously over estimates because I used last year&amp;#x27;s volumes with todays prices).&lt;p&gt;On top of that many publications talk as if electricity from other sources could easily replace gas, which is also incorrect. Germany which is often criticised generates less than 10% of electricity from gas, similar to France who are the nuclear poster child (that is because gas and nuclear are used for different purposes). Most of the gas in Germany is used for heating and industrial processes.&lt;p&gt;On top of that we see articles (this isn&amp;#x27;t the first) who try to reframe the question of energy consumption around land use, which is a complete red hering, designed to make nuclear look more advantageous.&lt;p&gt;Finally, nobody talks how the situation at the Zaporizhzhia is an illustration of the significant security implications of nuclear. I mean Europe has not been this close to a nuclear disaster in more than 30 years and people arguing we should build more nuclear plants?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kleene_op</author><text>&amp;gt; Finally, nobody talks how the situation at the Zaporizhzhia is an illustration of the significant security implications of nuclear.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s in Putin&amp;#x27;s interest to entertain fear of nuclear in occidental countries. Him moving troops and shelling around Zaporizhzhia could be construed as his latest plan to prevent us from building more nuclear plants.&lt;p&gt;Anyway the point is moot since Russia is closer to Zaporizhzhia than the EU is and would suffer firsthand from a nuclear incident, so it&amp;#x27;s not in Putin&amp;#x27;s interest to actually act on it.</text></comment>