Comments
Advanced_Falcon_2816 t1_jcme4c2 wrote
Looks like their attempt to harness energy ended up causing a whole lot of unease-y in Staufen.
Loki-L t1_jcmcvd3 wrote
Tom Scott did a video on that a few years back:
AUWarEagle82 OP t1_jcmdoi3 wrote
Sabine implies there may be other towns that have suffered similar problems.
Loki-L t1_jcmfjpe wrote
That is mentioned in the Tom Scott video too. I guess Staufen is either the worst hit or the most photogenic example of that particular group. Certainly a nearly 5 century old city hall slowly being torn apart makes it more of an attention getter than the other ones.
fachan t1_jcmy69c wrote
Meanwhile, almost 50 (and counting!) similar villages have been destroyed for just one coal mine
And this German mine continues to consume villages and (a wind farm) even thought they don't even need the coal
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/14/europe/lutzerath-germany-coal-protests-climate-intl/index.html
>An August report by international research platform Coal Transitions found that even if coal plants operate at very high capacity until the end of this decade, they already have more coal available than needed from existing supplies.
Ninel56 t1_jcnyfj0 wrote
And I thought Poland had a coal obsession.
AUWarEagle82 OP t1_jcm9yjg wrote
For more information on geothermal energy, watch Sabine Hossenfelder discuss the state of geothermal energy around the world.
Dawnawaken92 t1_jcm7ygr wrote
The cause of these crevices is a geothermal drilling operation in 2007 that went awry. To harness geothermal energy, the drillers had to perforate a layer of groundwater and a separate layer of anhydrite, a water-free chemical substance. Unfortunately, this process inadvertently increased the amount of pressure in the ground below Staufen, which allowed the groundwater to bleed into the anhydrite.
The resulting chemical reaction formed gypsum, which caused Staufen’s ground to swell by up to five inches, depending on the exact location. Although the local government has taken steps to mitigate this problem, the rising ground has reached a point of no return and continues to rise at a rate of about one centimeter per year.