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(Aus einem Brief von Franz Nahrada November 2009)


.......................................................................................we must seek to
involve the dominant mode of business to help us provide (to maintain, to
save, to create) a reality beyond business, because business in the market
has become an overall costly and redundant activity with too many players
everywhere - and a horrible dominance of marketing and sales over quality
and sustainability. Economy is the modern equivalent of war, not of peace.

The solution that I am pointing out is a world that provides local living
opportunities based on agreements, which create a sustainable environment
that is the base for a "minority game" called market. If we are not forced
to sell ourselves, we might provide with pride.

I call this scheme "Global Villages", which simply means a planet filled
with millions of basically self-sustaining villages, linked in a global
cloud of knowledge exchange and grouped in local independent regions
around a number of "mothercities". Exchange of material goods in this
vision will only take place if it really provides substantial advantages
over local production. Exchange of people, of travelling, of considering
the whole planet as our home, will be greatly enhanced, though - still
probably resulting in less transportation than today. Lets call it a 20 -
80 scheme: 20% global market economy, 80% local agreement economy.

"You may say that I am a dreamer, but I am not the only one" (John Lennon)


So I want to report from the conference that the Global Marshall Plan
Foundation recently held in Salzburg, Austria. It was meant to be a high
level business conference, chaired by Prince Hassan from Jordania, about
the emerging opportunities of collaborative approaches that take into
account that our most essential wealth is commons, not prvately owned,
something that we have really lost sight of.

There was a group of children that started the "plant for the planet"
project. One Million new trees in every country, every region. Very
impressive, But there were some very mature and even more exciting
business projects that deserve our full attention.

What stroke me most is the potential of DESERTEC, a very ambitious project
of immense scale backed by the Club of Rome and important European
business players, that basically can be described as "creating a European
- African energy grid"'. Desertec starts with the observation that turning
a square of 400 by 400 Square kilometres in the Sahara to a thermal solar
power plant - collecting sunlight with mirrors, heating water that drives
steam engines - could provide enough electricity for the energy needs of
the whole mankind!!! The costs of bringing one Kilowatthour to far remote
places like Europe would be one cent.

Now the project starts with this observation, but is very open in
development how to use this opportunity. Our first suspicion was that it
is megalomanic, the second one that it is colonialistic. the third one that it
actively undermines every efforts towards local energy production back home.

But the answers that came were very promising.

* Desertec does not want to confine itself to large power plants. Solar
power collection in Africa could be vastly decentralised.
* Only 20% of the energy harvested should go to Europe, 80% should stay in
Africa, be used for water desalienation and many other local needs
* Europe should not totally rely on that energy, but only have 20% of its
needs met by passive solar, while other renewable sources should also be
addressed.

So imagine if a project like this really becomes the backbone for African
sustainable development.

* The inner - African North South conflict (expansion of Islamism etc) could
be mitigated, a zone of intensive development and peaceful settlements
powered by the Grid would emerge in the Sahara and Subsahara. Europe would
not have to be afraid of migrants any more, many Europeans would maybe
like to spend a wintertime in warm climate and so on....
* A real bridge for knowledge transfer and collaboration could emerge if
the energy infrastructure could be combined with broadband communication
infrastructure. Global Villages could emerge which use skills and inputs
from the whole globe to Imprve their local living condition.
* The most important local needs could be addressed; "Energy harvestiung"
would be much easier and beneficial than exporting agricultural goods.
Soil and water could be directed to local needs.

Thats the approach and I ask myself what would be possible if the power of
community led development like shown by Open Source Ecology
(www.openfarmtech.org) and similar endavours would be merged with
infastructural developments like DESERTEC and support projects like the
Telepathology project that was also introduced in Salzburg.

Is this possible? I wonder.

We should dare to dream - a new European - African dream.


Websites von Desertec

Kritik am DESERTEC Projekt

http://www.thurnhofer.cc/index.php/communication/usp/51-wirtschaftsethik/326-desertec-der-sonnenschein-truegt

"Mit Desertec wollen sich die Energiekonzerne ihre Monopolstellung sichern. Unter dem Banner der Zukunftsenergie wollen sie verhindern, dass die dezentrale Versorgung Überhand gewinnt.