CFC Ban Successful - Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future - Germany's Hidden Champions

<blockquote>'But as the saying goes, one man's trash is another man's treasure.'

- Berlin Group Declares War on Food Waste, March 28, 2012</blockquote>


'..the healing of the ozone layer..'

<blockquote>'A new scientific study has confirmed that the healing of the ozone layer is also reducing people's exposure to harmful UV rays from the sun. It will still take years before the ozone layer recovers entirely, but the string of positive news continues.'

- Axel Bojanowski, Healing Ozone Layer Lowers UV Exposure, Report Finds, March 16, 2012</blockquote>


'Economic history teaches us that hardship sparks invention.' - Jeff Rubin

<blockquote>'If every person on Earth used as much energy as the average person in the United States, today's known oil reserves would be exhausted within nine years.

..

..economist Jeff Rubin. A former investment banker, Rubin expects to see a growing trend back to regional and location production. He predicts that our world "is about to get a whole lot smaller."

A world that is smaller in this sense doesn't have to be worse off.

.."Economic history teaches us that hardship sparks invention," says economist Rubin.

This is the alternative that would lead the consuming countries out of the fossil-fuel trap. The oil-producing countries, for their part, appear to be the winners at the moment. This spring, they were paid more for their mineral resources than ever before.

But easily earned petro-dollars have made countries like Russia, Venezuela and Nigeria corrupt and lethargic. The oil billions have not stimulated economic development. In fact, they have tended to achieve the opposite effect, because it didn't seem necessary to develop other industries.

..

any German companies, including Bayer, BASF and Bosch, are involved in the development of Masdar. Electronics giant Siemens is building its headquarters for Asia and the Middle East in the experimental city. These are all companies that ran their businesses on the basis of fossil fuels for decades, and did very well as a result.

Now that conditions are changing dramatically, they are trying to turn adversity into a virtue.

..

At the end of the year, BASF will begin mass production of cathode materials for batteries at its new plant in the US state of Ohio. But the question of when electromobility achieves its breakthrough and becomes profitable for BASF will not depend solely on the performance of his team, explains Fischer: "The price of gasoline is also a factor."

The higher the gas price, the more worthwhile the investment and the greater the prospects for selling battery technology. In this way, the rising price of oil accelerates structural change in the economy, a painful process for everyone who falls by the wayside. But it is also exceptionally advantageous for those companies that have figured out how to use scarce resources in particularly efficient ways.

More Out of Less

There are many such companies in Germany, such as makers of heat pumps, insulation material and condensing boiler heating systems. One reason they are so strong is that Germans are accustomed to a lack of natural resources. The growing importance of energy efficiency is evident in the fact that a leading trade fair devoted to environment technology, IndustrialGreenTec, will be held in the German city of Hanover for the first time in 2012.

..

..Bernd Bohr, the head of the vehicle technology division. Bohr and his colleagues are consumed with one question: How do you get more out of less? The answer will also shape Bosch's success as a business. "Resource efficiency is a key growth driver for our company," says Bohr..

..

New business opportunities are emerging from the challenges faced by an economy that has to make do with less and less oil. In Germany, the decoupling of prosperity from energy has been happening for some time. Last year, the economy grew by 3 percent while consumption of oil, natural gas and coal declined by almost 5 percent.

But in most countries of the world, especially the emerging countries, economic growth and energy consumption still go hand in hand. A global change of course is overdue, according to the German Advisory Council on Global Change. "The carbon-based world economic model," say the scientists on the council, constitutes "a normatively unsustainable situation" and is as morally reprehensible as slavery or child labor.'

- Der Spiegel, Companies Prepare for a Fossil-Free Future, April 02, 2012</blockquote>


'..the "hidden champions,"..'

<blockquote>'..they are now setting their sights on the "hidden champions," the low-profile global market leaders that are typical of German industry.'

- Takeover Could Signal New Strategy for China, February 09, 2012</blockquote>


Context

<blockquote>'..real people who use their minds to make exchanges in the real world..'

(In the Electric Universe) DESERTEC - Asian Super Grid for Renewable Energies

(In The Electric Universe) Open Source Infrastructure, beginning of the Enterprise Nervous System (ENS)

Affectivity, Action, Electricity - '..in order to preserve society itself..'