That is tbh a very US centric perspective. The decade Gen X grown up - youth in the 80ties and young adulthood in 90ties - is known for the break up of the Sovjetbloc. If that isn’t a big shake in life, I don’t know what else might have such an impact on lifestyle, thoughts, ownerships and behaviors.

The longtail effects had disruptions to other regions in the world with unrest and uprisings for independence.

And sure there have been conflicts as well. E.g. the North Ireland conflict with bombing in the UK. And there was the first nuclear disaster of Tschernobyl in 1986 causing angst in Europe.

But at all, I‘d say these days were characterized by a positive mood and the feeling that people can change things.

Germany: We moved our power creation from 60% coal and atom-driven to 60% wind and solar-driven in the last 6 years. This change is fundamental and can’t be reversed. We stopped our atom plants and have a plan out of coal. Even though our geography isn’t in favor for renewables, our country is dedicated in becoming carbon neutral. This is supported by most of the population and industry. (Yes renewables are cheaper than coal, gas, and atom)

Still open is the transition of heat and cars to electricity. Rather an emotional debate - Germans are car-crazy. The car discussion is similar to the gun debate in the US.

Battery costs are going down rapidly. And just see LithiumNatrium-Solid state batteries next years. (I‘m not saying Lithium-Ion that we use in our electronics nowadays) LithiumNatrium is fck cheap, doesn’t burn fast, low loss at winter.

Germany shut down nuclear last year entirely and is closing coal mines very soon (by 2030). That is an adventurous path for sure. Fall back is gas only.

However, I see France has serious issues with nuclear in summer time (too hot rivers - nuclear plants need to stop & too costly - power company was bankrupt and bailed off/ socialized by government).

I see our strategic dependency on Russian gas, which makes us attackable.

In my opinion, renewables in a decentralized manner with many local storages will make your economy more robust and energy cheap. Technically this is a challenge, but which engineers can solve that if not German engineers?

Edit: And this decentralized production will be an advantage when your heating and transportation move to electric as well. In this case Germany, that hasn’t oil, gas, and uranium is more self-reliant and independent.

Yes, that was close to where I live in Western Germany. Last outburst of old thinking (I hope). Meanwhile, the power company said in the news, it doesn’t need that entire area and forest anymore, because renewables have gone too competitive. Coal is too costly now.

If you like to see a moon-alike area in a densly populated area in Western Germany - the open field coal area Hambaxh: https://maps.app.goo.gl/H47EKatEDyKut3XZ6?g_st=com.google.maps.preview.copy

As big as city of Cologne. I‘m happy that this is going to stop by 2030. Or even faster

And when the sun and wind aren’t active?

That is a serious issue. Under the hood the power grid is being reengineered to solve it. Lot of battery storages, pump lakes, and may be hydrogen conversion. Still this is an open issue. I love to follow the discussion in blogs and podcasts.

Yepp, that is the luck of geology.

At least we‘re on a track to carbon zero as you can see here: https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts

It‘s not perfect and could be faster. However, we‘re way better than other countries that don’t move.

Edit: I forgot to mention, that half the year Germanies power is over 50% from renewables. Share is increasing every year.

I. Germany we haven’t found this sufficient deep hole since 30 years.

Yes indeed. Best is to move to renewables as fast as possible. This will make power very cheap in the middle run.

The toxic and deadly trash it makes. Deadly for centuries.

In Germany we still search for an area to dig for ages. We search since 30 years.

Welcome to the world of renewables. We have quite some negative hours in Germany in summer when sun and wind are active simultaneously. Unfortunately Finland relies on nuclear, does it?