Scheer died on Thursday, October 14 at the age of 66. In 2002, Time Magazine included him in its list of five "heroes for the green century."
In one of his last interviews with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Scheer said that modern governments in North America, Europe, and all around the world are so controlled by energy cartels and status quo bureaucracies that they are incapable of transitioning modern civilization from a fossil-fuel based economy to a new economy based on solar power, and other kinds of renewable energy and decentralized power sources.
Scheer says that a lot of the resistance to the new energy change from politicians and government bureaucrats springs from dead ideas about how energy in the economy is supposed to work. A paradigm shift is never an easy thing, people have "mental barriers" says Scheer. The biggest reason, of course, is that energy cartels and other vested interests want to increase their profits and power until eternity, and a solar transformation of civilization's energy grid is a check against their ungodly ambition because the sun is a free, and everlasting resource. It is the saving grace for the poor, and for a world in peril.
Winning the battle for solar energy across the map is about winning hearts and minds. According to Scheer, democracy is at stake. Without energy independence, you can't have political independence. Scheer:
"It endangers democratic—this situation of energy dependency endangers democratic constitutions. Democratic constitution means self-determination of a society, political self-determination of society. How can a society self-determinate in itself if the lifeblood of all activities is coming from—is coming from another one and creates existential dependency."But Scheer is hopeful about Mankind's future. He told Goodman that the battle for solar energy has already been won:
"It is a fight. This is a structural fight. It is a fight between centralization and decentralization, between energy dictatorship and energy participation in the energy democracy. And because nothing works without energy, it’s a fight between democratic value and technocratical values. And therefore, the mobilization of the society is the most important thing. And as soon as the society, most people, have recognized that the alternative are renewable energies and we must not wait for others, we can do it by our own, in our own sphere, together in cooperatives or in the cities or individually. As soon as they recognize this, they will become supporters. Other—this is the reason why we have now a 90 percent support against all the disinformation campaigns. They have much more money and possibilities to influence the public opinion, but they lost this. They lost this conflict. In the eyes of the people, they lost the conflict. They are the losers already."
Scheer's pursuit of energy creation for his country made him a national hero. Germany is a bright spot in the new world of abundant energy because it currently produces half the world's solar electricity. But if it weren't for Scheer's vision and persistence throughout the last two decades Germany would be like the rest of us, stuck in a dysfunctional and harmful energy paradigm, and on the brink of disaster.
Watch Scheer's speech at The Solar Future in Holland on April 22nd, 2009, a conference hosted by Solar Plaza.
Part I
Part II
Democracy Now: Hermann Scheer (1944-2010): German Lawmaker, Leading Advocate for Solar Energy and "Hero for the Green Century" in One of His Final Interviews
