I haven't read the book, but Hermann Scheer is saying something similar to what I've been writing on FW. The only difference is that Scheer appears to be talking about solar energy as an energy technology per se whereas I have been writing about solar energy being the basis of a biogenetic production technology as well.
<<<< The Solar Economy by Herman Scheer, Earthscan, ISBN 1853838357 Reviewed by Fred Pierce (New Scientist 14 December 2002) George Bush and Hermann Scheer, the guru of the solar-energy revolution.agree on one thing. The Kyoto Protocol is bunkum: a tiresome diplomatic distraction to the real business of enterprise and innovation. >From there, they take different paths. Bush is an oil man, whereas Scheer says the costs to society of oil now hugely outweight the benefits. Harnessing solar energy is not just the technological future, he says, but also the door to a new freer, more egalitarian future. With no more Bushes. "It does not take a global treaty to unlock the benefits of renewable energy," says Scheer. The Kyoto Protocol is "fantasy politics", with greens and the energy industry locked in a deadly embrace to protect their futures. What we need, he says, are risk-taking entrepreneurs with a vision of a solar future. This is bold talk, especially for a German parliamentarian whose party, the SPD, is wedded to protocol politics. But Scheer, a solar advocate for more than a decade, is impatient. "Leveraging the Sun" is the future, he says. Its energy is cheap, clean and available everywhere. And this omnipresence will undermine the corrosive geopolitics of oil. Some of "The Solar Economy" is technical -- a bit dull, even. But much of it is inspirational. Scheer analyses how our addiction to fossil fuels, and the long supply lines needed to deliver it, has created a hierarchical, political, economic and cultural superstructure that dominates the world. Solar energy will not only head off global warming, banish smogs and keep the power turned on, it will tear down this oil-fuelled superstructure and replace it with a more egalitarian, democratic society. Not only that, universally accessible solar energy will open the floodgates to unconstrained innovation and individual entrepreneurial activity. In a solar world, we will "revitalise the rich diversity of global culture". Scheer's is a heady, Utopian vision. Here comes the Sun. <<<< ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- Keith Hudson,6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel:01225 312622/444881; Fax:01225 447727; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
