I am back home in Germany. After three wonderful and successful years as Dean of the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, I returned to my home country and settled down in Emmendingen near my old Alma Mater, the University of Freiburg. more…
The core of the answer to the energy challenges may not come from modified energy supplies but from a systematic, long term strategy of increasing energy productivity, which essentially means curbing energy demand while further increasing prosperity. more…
Dinner Speech — Bren School Corporate Partners Summit — May 11, 2006 Tomorrow, we shall discuss the science, management and economics of catastrophes. After Katrina, this is one of the hot debates in this country and the world. I seem to observe some kind of a new mindset setting in and do hope that the Bren […] more…
In my role as Chairman of the parliamentary Select Committee on Economic Globalisation I learned with a degree of surprise that the term globalisation was brand new. It began to play a role in public life not earlier than in 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end around 1990 of the Cold War. more…
The answer to this question should be yes and no. Yes, we are closer than ten years ago. During all of he 1990s, an irritatingly optimistic mindset was dominating the world. The very expression of ‘saving the planet’ would not have been politically correct in these days, because it sounds ‘pessimistic’. more…
Globalisation is a new phenomenon. The very term “globalisation” appeared in the languages of the world around 1993. The strongest reason for the sudden appearance of the term globalisation has been the end of the Cold War. We all, I am sure, were glad about many things that happened in this context. more…
When I began preparing this address on the Old and New Europe in their transatlantic relations, I saw with a degree of relief that hundreds of wise men and women had already written or spoken about the subject in recent months. So my task looked like a pretty easy one, just to summarise what wiser people than myself have said. more…
This piece was written by a European and an American both deeply engaged in efforts to moderate global warming. We give a perspective on the present situation regarding climate change in Europe; a parallel perspective on the situation in the U.S.; and then close with a series of recommendations and policy opportunities. more…