Suchergebnisse

The policy sciences, enquiring into the making and implementation of public decisions, has made several stunning findings that are highly relevant to the COP21 Agreement or Treaty if you so wish. They constitute the so-called "implementation gap" or the "hiatus of policy implementation", analysed by late American Aaron Wildavsky and also Paul Sabatier. The enormous enthusiasm for the COP21 framework must be dampened when confronted with the lessons from policy implementation, especially in such an extremely decentralised approach taking place over so many years. But the signatories have to decide now how to halt the increase in greenhouse gases (GHG), especially the CO2:s in order to start decreasing them, hopefully (naively) to zero in 80 years. As the emergence of economically viable renewable energy is slow, the only quick solution is to remove coal as an energy source. That would resolve the star economist Jeffrey Sachs dilemma that decarbonisation would result in negative economic growth.

Thus far, all the debate about climate change in the myriad of UN conferences and special meetings has been about the application of the theories of the natural sciences to the global warming phenomena. Now, that there is a decision by the governments of the world countries to go ahead with a radical decarbonisation policy in the 21st century, the lessons from the social science theories must be taken into account. The COP21 project is a case of policy implementation, but implementation is difficult. Greenhouse Gases (GHG) like CO2:s stem from the anthropogenic sources of carbon emissions from the factors that drives not only the universe but also all social systems, viz. energy. This article spells out the energy-emissions conundrum of mankind.

The implementation process for the COP21 Agreement must now start in order to have any chance of succeeding with its main objective of a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions. Actually, this process of implementation can be imagined to go on for the entire century, as COP21 promises a carbon free economy sometime after 2050. However, policy implementation is difficult to achieve, especially in a heavily decentralised structure. It is likely that many governments will only deliver small changes in emission decreases, but keep lots of fossil fuel energy sources in order to maintain a positive rate of economic growth. Complete decarbonisation of entire societies is a figment of the imagination.

The rise and roots of Nazi Germany is one of the most debated issues in social science today. It is a recurrent topic in the media and new books continue to provide further analyses and perspectives. The key question, of course, is how much did the Germans themselves know and approve of? Friedrich Lenger, a historian at the University of Giessen, gives a fascinating perspective on what has been called "the German catastrophe" with his penetrating study ofthe life and writings of Werner Sombart, the most quoted political and social scientist of the interwar years. [.]