"Energiewende is a German word en route to joining the English language, like angst and sauerkraut did long ago. It means “energy transition,” and refers to Germany’s historic plans to shift to a green economy based solely on renewable energies. The German designation will come in handy, since Germany’s trailblazing energy policies and lofty ambitions have no equivalent in the U.S. or anywhere. The energiewende is a full-scale “industrial revolution,” as economist and author Jeremy Rifkin puts it, that will change many things as we know them: transportation, farming, power hierarchies, industrial production, urban architecture, the business world, resource distribution, foreign relations and more. It’s an endeavor of colossal proportions, comparable to the U.S. space program or German unification, although even these analogies ultimately fall short. ... It was Germany’s current leader, Chancellor Angela Merkel, who coined the term energiewende when her government pulled the plug on nuclear power in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster last year. In one fell swoop, Berlin closed down eight of 17 nuclear reactors, reversed its earlier (and controversial) lifespan extension of the remaining plants and bumped up existing targets. Only with the tragedy in Japan did Merkel definitively commit her conservative party and the current administration—longtime cohorts of the muscular fossil fuel and nuclear industries—to a future powered by renewables." (BTW, She just recently got re-elected, so it seems that the people are supporting this.)
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 07:04:30 +0000
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