In Memory of Hermann Scheer (April 29, 1944 – October 14, 2010)
Dear Readers,
On this day, exactly one year after his passing, I would like to share with you all the memory and work of the man, Hermann Scheer, most instrumental in bringing about the impact of effective Feed-In-Tariff policy in Germany (May 8, 2011 post of http://sunisthefuture.net) and subsequent impact on renewable energy for rest of the world. In addition to paragraphs taken from Wikipedia ( in bold print) below, I would also like to share with you all, his words of passion and urging/warning those of us who love our system of democracy, the need and hope for the change toward renewable energy…. eight months before his passing :
Dr. Hermann Scheer passed away a year ago, on Oct. 14, 2010.
Hermann Scheer (April 29, 1944 – October 14, 2010) was a Social Democrat member of the German Bundestag (Parliament), President of Eurosolar (The European Association for Renewable Energy) and General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy. In 1999, Scheer was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for his “indefatigable work for the promotion of solar energy worldwide“.
Scheer believed that the continuation of current patterns of energy supply and use will be environmentally damaging, with renewable energy being the only realistic alternative. Scheer had concluded that it is technically and environmentally feasible to harness enough solar radiation to achieve a total replacement of the foclear (fossil/nuclear) energy system by a global renewable energy economy. The main obstacle to such a change is seen to be political, not technical or economic. In 1999 he was one of the initiators of the German feed-in tariffs that were the major source of the rise of renewable energies in Germany during the following years.
Life
Scheer was born in Wehrheim, and became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1965. As a student, while majoring in economics and law, he was active in student politics at the University of Heidelberg, and participated in the German student movement of the 1960s. In 1979, he graduated from the Free University of Berlin as a doctor of political science.
He became a member of the Bundestag in 1980, representing Baden-Württemberg; in 1993, he also became a member of the federal steering committee (Bundesvorstand) of the Social Democratic Party. Scheer had a solid track record as an anti-establishment figure within his own party.
He called the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia a war crime.
In his election districts, he always had to rely on a suitable placement on the party list to receive his mandates. He never had an executive post in government. In the preelection shadow cabinet of Andrea Ypsilanti, candidate for prime minister of Hesse in 2008, Scheer was pegged unsuccessfully as minister for development, environment and economics. The final list long after the election mentioned him as secretary of a downsized ministry of economics Scheer announced ambitious energy policy plans. The announcement of Scheer boosted the Ypsilanti campaign in the beginning but enhanced innerparty doubts about a non realistic approach in Hesses political and economic surroundings which made him fail finally. Scheer assumed Ypsilantis policies would result in a big big triumph of his party at the federal elections 2009.
His book Energy Autonomy was instrumental in the making of the film Die 4. Revolution – Energy Autonomy in which he stresses the revolution in capitalist ownership of our energy supply.
Death
Fourteen days before his death he was seen live on German television making a statement in the Bundestag about a highly explosive (“hochbrisant”) 60 billion euro breach of contract (“Vertragsbruch”) by Germany’s privately owned nuclear power corporations. He suddenly died in a hospital in Berlin from heart failure after an unspecified short and severe illness.
Books
- Energy Autonomy, The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energy, 2006,Earthscan, ISBN 184473556
- A Solar Manifesto, 2005, Earthscan, ISBN 1902916514
- The Solar Economy, Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future , 2004, Earthscan, ISBN 1844070751
To understand more about this most effective incentive program, Feed-In-Tariff, that would help to generate local jobs, local economic prosperity, and help to transform the economic balance of power in favor of people and nature, please refer to my posts between May 8-July 31 of 2011 and Nov. 8, 2011 at Sun Is The Future at http://sunisthefuture.net
written and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Homepage: http://sunisthefuture.net
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
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Tags: clean energy, Energy Autonomy, Eurosolar, feed-in-tariff, Free University of Berlin, General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy, German, German Bundestag, Hermann Scheer, Parliament, promote, renewable energy, Right Livelihood Award, Social Democratic Party, Solar Energy, Sun Is The Future, sunisthefuture, sunisthefuture.com, sunisthefuture.net, susan sun nunamaker, University of Heidelberg