PETERSON / BAILEY - But, wait. Isn’t Norway, Greta’s neighbour, dumping its energy investments and moving into alternative energy like wind farms in a big way?
USED WITH PERMISSION of the authors -- originally published in the Calgary Herald Greta Thunberg, the teenaged Swedish environmentalist, has focused global attention on the climate change debate like never before. So, as she tours Alberta, what better time for a reality check than to look at a country that is furthest ahead in already adapting steps that Greta is advocating. That country is Germany. And it’s not a pretty sight. Germany embraced the rush to renewables before anyone else, and did so with gusto. The result? Germany’s largest news magazine Der Spiegel published an article on May 3 of this year entitled “ A Botched Job in Germany .” The cover showed broken wind turbines and half-finished transition towers against a dark silhouette of Berlin. Germany’s renewable energy transition, Energiewende, is a bust. After spending and committing a total of US $580 billion to it from 2000 to 2025. Why is that? Because it’s been a nightmar...