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2014 | Buch

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker

A Pioneer on Environmental, Climate and Energy Policies

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Über dieses Buch

On the occasion of the 75th birthday of Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker this unique anthology presents thought-provoking texts from 1970 to 2013, spanning several disciplines and combining science and practice. Among them are three Reports to the Club of Rome that Weizsäcker lead-authored, a new university curriculum system to promote interdisciplinary studies and a proposal for a five-fold increase in resource productivity, which would make it possible to shut down nuclear and fossil power plants, avoiding dangerous climate change impacts. Weizsäcker is Co-President of the Club of Rome and Co-Chair of UNEP’s Resource Panel. He has served as a Professor of Biology, President of Kassel Univ., Director of the UN Centre for Science and Technology and of the Institute for European Environment Policy, President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, as a Member of the Bundestag, as Chair of its Environment Committee and as Dean of the Bren School for Environmental Science and Management, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, USA.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Autobiographical Sketch
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 2. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker’s Selected Publications
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker

Key Texts by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker

Frontmatter
Chapter 3. Modular University
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Irene Kehler
Chapter 4. Contagious Knowledge: Contagion as a Quality Criterion for Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science
Abstract
One of the most intriguing statements about quality in the sciences is attributed to Max Delbrück: “When you are fifty and you still understand your pupils—then you don’t have good pupils.” Let us assume that this was not a melancholic gerontological statement—since Delbück remained highly successful in his later years, even after he had won the Nobel Prize! Then his statement either confirms the ubiquitous complaint about overspecialization in the sciences, or it does indeed convey a message about the nature of scientific quality.
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 5. New Frontiers in Technology Application: Integration of Emerging and Traditional Technologies
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 6. The Environmental Dimension of Biotechnology
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 7. Not a Miracle Solution but Steps Towards an Ecological Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 8. Earth Politics
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 9. Ecological Tax Reform
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Jochen Jesinghaus
Chapter 10. Sustainable Energy Policies: Political Engineering of a Long Lasting Consensus
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 11. Factor Four: Doubling Wealth—Halving Resource Use: A New Report to the Club of Rome
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins
Chapter 12. Eco-Efficiency Goals: Factor Four or Factor Ten
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 13. Sharing the Planet: From ‘Limits to Growth’ to ‘Factor Four’
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 14. Globalization and Its Challenges to Democracy and Development
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 15. Limits to Privatization
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Oran Young, Matthias Finger
Chapter 16. Information, Evolution, and ‘Error-Friendliness’
Abstract
Information can be conceived as being composed of two complementary components: novelty and confirmation. Whenever either of the two is zero, information is zero. Genetic information, too, requires both novelty and confirmation. Evolution can be seen as the history of diversification. Selection alone reduces diversity. Recessivity appears to serve as a mechanism to protect diversity against selection. So does the geographical and behaviorial ‘separation’ of species. Both recessivity and separation can be seen as ‘error-friendly’, a broader concept that is supportive of diversity, learning and further evolution. This concept should also be obeyed in technological applications.
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Christine von Weizsäcker
Chapter 17. Factor Five: Transforming the Global Economy Through 80 % Improvements in Resource Productivity
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Karlson ‘Charlie’ Hargroves, Michael H. Smith, Cheryl Desha, Peter Stasinopoulos
Chapter 18. Climate Sceptics Keep a Distance from Solutions
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Chapter 19. Decoupling: Technological Opportunities and Policy Options: Executive Summary
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
herausgegeben von
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
Copyright-Jahr
2014
Electronic ISBN
978-3-319-03662-5
Print ISBN
978-3-319-03661-8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03662-5