Over the holday season my kids introduced me to the hilarious US comedy series The Big Bang Theory. Highly recommendable. It has a side effect, too: all of a sudden I find myself reading articles on theoretical physics: quantum mechanics, string theory, black holes… Not sure I understand, though. 
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…and all the best for 2012!
Still from Japan, but back in Germany before xmas.
…where serious climate protection started. I just read an interview with Hans Joachim Schellnhuber commenting on the Durban results. My own thoughts are as follows: I always felt uneasy about the co-existence of “top-down” instruments like emission trading and “bottom-up” instruments like feed-in-tariffs, because theoretically it is “either or” and not “both”. With regard to the “political roof” on the climate protection process I had similar feelings: it is either a “top-down” binding treaty or it is a “bottom-up” best-effort exercise.
After Durban and after reading the Schellnhuber interview I come to the conclusion that there is still a chance for the “top down”, but there is also a decent chance that the “bottom-up” will produce results, so for the time being it is essential to fight on both fronts.
And maybe we should extend this conclusion into the sphere of the instruments as well and say: we cannot wait until we have water tight emission trading systems and for that reason it is, after all, not “either-or” but “both”?
By the way: the print version of my book on Kosovo is now available in your bookstore.
And yes, I think the result of the referendum on “Stuttgart 21” is a good one.
…the referendum on “Stuttgart 21″, the combined railway infrastructure and urban development project, will take place in my home state of Baden-Württemberg. No is Yes and Yes is No as a result of the question on the ballot paper. My vote is No which is Yes.
…of my new book. Read more at
http://verlag.kubon-sagner.de/
or if you wish to order visit http://www.kubon-sagner.de/opac.html?query=8022&filter=product:ottosagner
The print version will also be available shortly.
Cheers from Tokyo!
as my friends from Texas used to say. After some busy and adventurous weeks first in Iraq now in China, I intend to come back here more regularly. We actually have a nice and sunny weekend in Beijing, no smog today. Next week I should get my ballot paper for the Baden-Württemberg referendum on “Stuttgart 21″ by pouch. I wouldn’t want to miss this one.
