Rhein on Energy and Climate

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By 2050 the EU aims at covering essentially all of its electricity needs from non-fossil sources: wind, hydro, solar, biomass,geothermal and possibly nuclear. A multitude of medium-sized power plants. widely scattered across the continent, will then satisfy an increasing electricity demand of 500 million European citizens and make Europe largely largely self-sufficient in electricity, except… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has raised an outcry in his country and beyond by opening a crusade against abortions and pleading for at least three children per family. He has called upon his government to prepare appropriate legislation to ban or restrict abortions and caesarian births to strictly medical indications. Abortion, which is legal… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Serbia has elected a new President. Against all odds and polls Tomislav Nicolic has won over the incumbent, Boris Tadic, though by a narrow majority. The new President has dubious political credentials. For most of his political career, he has been associated with the extreme right. He has been vice president of the Serbian Radical… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Humanity will run out of fossil fuels before the end of this century latest. It will therefore need to develop sustainable substitutes, especially for air and road transport, as well as for shipping. Biofuels will be one of them, renewable electricity to power electrical vehicles another one. Both will be complementary. Biofuels produced from corn,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The Lisbon Treaty has opened the way for a more active EU involvement in health issues. It offers the Union more leeway in the fight against health epidemics, including tobacco, alcohol abuse and obesity. The principal responsibility for health remains, of course, with individual member States, most which would not appreciate the EU intervening in… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The EU is facing its worst ever economic and financial crisis. Unemployment has reached intolerable levels. One in ten EU active citizens and one in four Spaniards are out of work. To overcome the crisis Europe needs to step up productive investments, rapidly and without bureaucratic strings. Most governments are not willing or able to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

During the last 60 years sub-Sahara Africa has seen an unprecedented population increase growth. In 1950, its total population amounted to some 200 million. Today, it is close to one billion, more than one third of whom illiterate! For the middle of the century, the UN Population Bureau projects more than 2 billion people, four… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Climate change and the 2008 financial crisis in the US are cataclysmic developments that were foreseeable long before they fully erupted in the open. But while the consequences of the US financial crisis are reversible this will not be the case for climate change. Beyond a critical point it will become impossible to restore the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein