At the moment, Germany is embroiled in a fierce debate over how to save the Eurozone and, with it, the future of the European Union. Although stringent austerity programs will have to be enacted in the member countries to reduce government debt, and new regulatory mechanisms put in place to oversee European financial institutions and markets, there is a dawning realization that these measures alone will be insufficient to assure the future of Europe and its member states. What's required, above all else, is a new sustainable economic growth plan that can take Europe into the future. That's beginning to happen.
While the rest of the world is in a near panic over the prospect of a second collapse of the global economy, a fresh new economic wind is blowing across Germany. In discussions with German business leaders over the past several months, and in recent conversations with Chancellor Angela Merkel and key political leaders in Berlin, it has become clear that Germany is embarking on a journey into a new economic era. The German plan is based on the historical understanding that the great economic paradigm shifts in history occur when new communications revolutions converge and merge with new energy regimes. New energy revolutions make possible more expansive and integrated trade. Accompanying communication revolutions manage the speed and complexity of commercial activity made possible by the new flow of energy. Today, the distributed Internet communication revolution is converging with distributed renewable energies, giving birth to a powerful Third Industrial Revolution that is going to fundamentally change German society.
The Merkel administration has launched an ambitious effort to transition the West's leading exporting power into a Third Industrial Revolution (TIR). The federal government has teamed up with six regions across Germany to test the introduction of an "energy Internet" that will allow tens of thousands of German businesses and millions of home owners to collect renewable energies onsite, store them in the form of hydrogen, and share green electricity across Germany in a smart utility network, just like we now share information online. Entire communities are in the process of transforming their commercial and residential buildings into green micro-power plants, and companies like Siemens and Bosch are creating sophisticated new IT software, hardware, and appliances that will merge distributed Internet communications with distributed energy to create the smart buildings, infrastructure, and cities of the future.
The transition into the new Industrial Revolution is quickly picking up momentum. In May, the government announced that the country's 17 nuclear power plants would be shut down by 2022. Then, in late summer, the German Association of Energy and Water Companies reported for the first time that renewable energy sources now account for nearly 20% of the country's electricity, putting Germany ahead of schedule in its goal of producing 35% of its electricity from green energy by 2022. On September 12th, Dr. Dieter Zetsche, the Chairman of Daimler, unveiled the company's hydrogen fuel-cell car at the opening of the Frankfurt International Auto Show. The company that launched the Second Industrial Revolution 125 years ago with the invention of the gasoline-powered automobile has joined with seven industrial partners -- EnBW, Linde, OMV, Shell, Total, Vattenfall, and the National Organization of Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology -- in a partnership to establish hydrogen fueling stations across Germany in preparation for the mass production of zero-emission fuel cell vehicles in 2015, signaling the beginning of the post-carbon auto era and a Third Industrial Revolution.
The creation of a renewable energy regime, loaded by buildings, partially stored in the form of hydrogen, distributed via an energy internet, and connected to plug-in zero-emission transport, establishes the essential 5-Pillars of a Third Industrial Revolution. The forty year build out will create thousands of businesses and millions of sustainable jobs and position Germany as the leader in the next industrial revolution.
Germany's ability to export the new model throughout the European Union and in its partnership regions in the Mediterranean, North Africa, and beyond, will set the framework for the next great stage of European integration, and ultimately determine whether the European political experiment and the European Dream succeeds or fails.
The opportunity is clear. The European Union has 500 million consumers and an additional 500 million potential consumers in its partnership regions, giving it the prospect of becoming the largest and wealthiest internal commercial market in the world. The key is creating a seamless green energy infrastructure, electricity grid, and communication and transport network that will allow one billion people to engage in "sustainable" commerce and trade across the European continent and its periphery. This represents the next stage of European integration as a political union.
In May 2007, the European Parliament issued a formal written declaration endorsing the Third Industrial Revolution (TIR) vision as the long-term economic road map for the European Union. The Third Industrial Revolution is currently being implemented by the various agencies within the European Commission as well as in the member states.
Now, Germany, the economic engine of the European Union, has set out on a course to quickly transform its economy into the new economic paradigm and serve as a lighthouse for moving the Third Industrial Revolution infrastructure across the European space. To the extent that Germany can effectively create a sustainable and prosperous post-carbon Europe and transform the continent into the largest integrated market space in the world, Germany will prosper, and the European Union will come of age. Other continental markets and continental unions in Asia, Africa, and the Americas will likely follow suit.
The world community will be watching the German experiment closely to see whether this new economic model can serve as a template for ushering in a new economic era. Germany's future, as well as Europe's and the world, depends on its success.
Jeremy Rifkin is the author of The Third Industrial Revolution: How lateral Power is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and World.
HERE IS THE TRULY SAD PART;LOCAL FED GOVT. OFFICE,FOR 'RURAL DEVELOPMENT,HAD THE MONEY TO GIVE FOLKS LIKE ME TO BRING MY HOME UP TO CODE.IN FACT(I APPLIED!!!)AS THERE WAS AN EXCESS OF FUNDS FLOWING INTO THAT AGENCY,BUT THEY 'DISQUALIFIED MY HOME,BECAUSE IT WAS BUILT WITH-OUT 'CODE'!!!!!
THERE-IN IS THE IRONY; IDIOTIC GOVT.RULES AND GOOD OL BOYZ FED FUNDS WERE DENIED....A OWNER-BUILDER LIKE ME, A TOTAL GREEN HOME EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT
WHICH WOULD HAVE ALLOWED ME TO DO COMMERCE IN A MUCH MORE COMPETITIVE WAY(LIKE GERMANY IS DOING),BUT-NO.....THE 'RULES' CAUSED THIS IDEA TO FAIL!!!!
WE NEED TO CHANGE THESE 'RULES' AND IN A WAY THAT BENIFITS THE POOR,WHO WANT TO OWN THEIR OWN LAND AND IF-NEEDED,WORK FOR LESS,BECAUSE ONE WOULD BE LIVING FOR LESS ON THEIR CHEAP EXPERIMENTAL HOMES.
They have many case studies of very progressive projects getting past the building codes or better yet getting ordinances to work outside building codes on "Living Building" projects.
EUROPE DOESN'T HAVE THE VAST EXPANSE OF LAND THE USA HAS.REMEMBER THE 'OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH'? POOR FOLKS LINED UP THEIR WAGONS AND FREE LAND WAS THEIRS!!
TIME TO DO THIS AGAIN.
THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN ENDORSING FOR YEARS! HOLY CRAP!
look at my comment history. i've posted links to articles on this over and over.
- Concentrated solar power plants as the foundation of the national power grid
- 80% of buildings/homes equipped with some solar technology to contribute to the grid
- zero - emission transportation based upon hydrogen, electric, etc.
THIS IS THE ANSWER. solar is the ONLY virtually limitless supply of energy. to not exploit its abundance is foolish.
it's NO COINCIDENCE that Germany is leading the way here, and now their economy is under attack, as Greece, etc threaten the stability of the Euro.
big oil does NOT WANT Germany to succeed at this. they're clearly demonstrating this within our own nation. look how they've shut our progress down completely, and brainwashed half the nation into believing it can't be done.
it can be, and it must be, if we want to continue to live in a free society. but that's ultimately what it's about isn't it? how free we are? vs. how enslaved we are to the system that has us work all day just to pay bills, while the elitists buy another private island?
When the productive are chained to the non-productive, all will perish in the end.
what happened,was tragic,as new mexico has a building code that ALLOWS...any experimental building to be built without 'code' bullshit,and if it stands the test of time,a permit is issued.
what the local building code "BOYZ"...did was to red tag my home and proceded to prosecute my experiment as 'criminal'.the judge never asked if my home was safe,as it was not only safe,but withstood earthquakes-floods-100mph winds-huge snow looads and gave winter solar warmth for free. the home did not need any insurance,because it was built for pennies,my labor for free.
IT'S THE LOCAL BUILDING CODE CORRUPTION THAT IS THE PROBLEM!!! USE NEW MEXICO'S CODE RULES AND WATCH WHAT HAPPENS.IT WOULD PUT GERMANY TO SHAME.
Revolution and recession. For good reason, these two words have dominated headlines over the past year. Yet talk of such political and financial tumult has resulted in the neglect of a third issue, which is both critical and germane: sustainability.
In every crisis there is opportunity, and in my opinion, only through sustainable models can upheaval be turned into enduring opportunity.
Take the example of Libya: a nascent nation that has rid itself of Gaddafi, which now must attempt to overhaul his legacy of crumbling infrastructure, poor education and high unemployment, whilst nurturing a lasting peace. This second revolution, if successful, will certainly be more prosaic and protracted than the first. If it fails, however, the ensuing reality could possibly prove more fraught than life under the former tyrant.
To succeed, any newly elected Libyan leaders must utilize their country’s natural resources (both finite and renewable) and secure the future well being of their citizens. For inspiration, I suggest they look to Norway and read the story in The Financial Times.
Such a comparison may at first seem preposterous, like, say, equating deserts to fjords. But if one looks closer, it is clear that these apparently disparate nations share some essential features in common. Most importantly, both have relatively small populations (of around 5 million people) and abundant oil and gas reserves. Read the Norweigian story and more at http://bit.ly/uPhgyI
http://www.newworldparty.org/2011/10/europes-stealing-from-children-goes.html
"The IMF is funded by the U.S., Canada, Australia and other countries. Since these countries are already stealing from their children and there is push for IMF to contribute billions of dollars to the European bailout, this means that Europe can potentially steal from children globally, including your children."
They also ignored Paul Krugman's advice to go into debt.
It seems like when the no-science, oil and war lovin, Cheney/Bush Administration stepped in and said "were gonna put the kybash on all this prosperity, ambition and hard work and get down to some real Neocon war fightin and financial flim prosperity, all with a bible tucked under his arm everything went to $hit.
When do we wake up from this nightmare?
God bless you young people for OWS!
Most of you never even got to live through the America that actually was exceptional.
Trust me its, possible.
Thank you youngsters, you might be the greatest generation.
Sadly, our forefathers warned us against what might happen if we let moneyed interstests dictate our future but we've been too dumbed down as a Nation to realize it...
It was part of the public discussion we had: We cannot reasonably end the use of nuclear power and coal at the same time AND supply our industries with the necessary energy. Had we stuck with the nuclear plants than we could have phased out of coal faster. We are talking about a strategy that reaches 40 years into the future and not only a legislative period or a decade.
Then there is an administrative aspect to that: Planning and licensing of such plants takes easily a decade and more in Germany before one can even start to physically built such a plant. They are accompanied by several judicial decisions. The plants you are talking about now were planned more than a decade ago. There are binding contracts. And they are mostly not federal but state decisions. It was part of the debate and with overwhelming support across all party lines to acknowledge that this process now needs to be reformed and streamlined so that the necessary plants and grits are available at the right time.
How to deal with that is part of the ongoing debate. But it is fair to say that replacing an old plant with a modern, cogeneration plant still increases the amount of available energy AND cuts carbon emissions.
unfortunately, it's purpose is to undermine traditional american values, and generate profits for the greedy elite at the expense of the american public.