Evolution or revolution?
Do we now need a gradual evolution or a rapid revolution for the solar energy transition?
Evolution means a step-by-step development over a long period of time. But in this case we no longer have this long time, because the climate crisis could very quickly turn into a global climate catastrophe. Time is of the essence and the impacts of climate change are fast approaching, becoming more brutal, accumulating, becoming unaffordable and claiming more and more lives. More than a quarter of 16-24-year-old Germans say they do not want to have children because of the climate crisis. Another quarter say that the desire to have children has diminished.
What is revolutionary?
So a revolution after all – as the representatives of the “last generation” believe? In our experience and in our thinking, revolution is always associated with violence – “men take to the barricades and set the world on fire”. (Christian Stöcker from SPIEGEL). However, the coming solar world revolution will be peaceful if it is to be successful and it will affect the whole world, unlike the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions after 1789, 1914 and 1949. It must be revolutionary and fast. This first peaceful world revolution will not only change our entire energy behaviour, but also our thinking, our politics, our economy and our lives. That is revolutionary.
For thousands of years, human development has been a development towards more universal humanity. In what Karl Jaspers called the “Axis Age” around 500 BC, a major historical change began simultaneously in four very different cultures: in ancient Greece with Socrates and Plato, in the Israel of the prophets, in Confucian China and in Indian Buddhism.
500 years later, this progressive development reached its first climax in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with its teaching on the balance between heart and mind. In the secular realm, these predecessor ideas formed the basis of the French Revolution with “liberty, equality, fraternity”, found their depth and maturity in German Romanticism with Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin and Fichte and their current global development in 1948 with the universal human rights of the UN Declaration and Article One of the German Basic Law: “Human dignity is inviolable.” Because of these advances, life in our world today – despite all the problems – is better than in all previous times.
The next stage of this humanitarian development is the universal solar age. We know that the transitions from one stage to the next were and are often painful, contradictory and fatally backward-looking. But the rapid transition to 100 per cent renewable energy and the preservation of biodiversity are the life insurance for life on our planet.
Iceland, Costa Rica, Kenya and New Zealand already generate almost 100 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources, and Germany already generates around 60 per cent. And the future is becoming increasingly electric. The major trends are clear: the complete solar energy revolution will be realised all over the world in the next ten to 15 years. Even in Texas, which is governed by Republicans, more money is currently being invested in solar systems and wind turbines than in fossil fuels. Not so much for reasons of climate protection, but because the returns on investment in renewables are higher than in oil or gas and because a kilowatt hour of green electricity is far cheaper than fossil-fuelled nuclear power. “It’s the economy, stupid” (Barack Obama). Sun and wind simply don’t send a bill. That is why we are currently experiencing the transition from the age of fire to the age of light.
For a better understanding: the price of photovoltaic systems in Germany. When the Renewable Energy Sources Act was passed in the German Bundestag in 2000, a solar installation cost around ten times more than it does today. That is the most sensational drop in the price of a technology product of all time. And more than 70 countries have adopted this successful German law. That is why the solar world revolution is unstoppable. It all started in Germany.
Source
FRANZ ALT 2024 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator