Sun and wind never send us an invoice – new energy – new jobs

The “Münchner Rückversicherung”, the largest reinsurance company in the world, in the year 2002, following the worldwide floods and storms, have made the following calculations: In the last thirty years the nature catastrophes have increased eight fold.

If this development continues at the same rate, then by the year 2060 the entire GNP of the world, the gross national product, will not suffice to cover the claims resulting from environmental damage.

Today’s economies and today’s energy policies are on their last legs.

The old energy policies mean wars about resources, environmental destruction and ever increasing costs. At this very important conference we are looking for alternatives. And I am confident that we will find these alternatives. We have all the necessary technologies we need for this change. This is one of the result of our conference here in Beijing.

The question is not, if we can compensate the old energies, the only question is, if we can compensate the old energies timely.

From this conference hope will emanate outwards for a better world. A better world is not only necessary but possible. A precondition is, however, a one-hundred-per-cent-change to solar energy. There is no future for the culture of mankind without ecology. And that means: There is no future for the culture of mankind without renewable energies. Environment-policy means peace-policy in a double sense: peace with the nature and peace between the peoples and societies.

This change to solar energy can and must take place within the next fifty years. Only then have we an escape route from the greenhouse effect.

In a single day we consume as much coal, gas and oil as nature created in 500.000 days. Think about it – what nature needed many hundreds of millions of years to create, we are burning up in a few short decades. We are burning the future of our own children and grandchildren. We are the first generation of the so called “homo sapiens” which has lost its instinct for survival and its procreation instinct.