Category: Zukunft

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Paris Olympics history

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games will go down in history as the event that has achieved to put Olympic Games and Paralympic Games on an equal footing. At least this is the message the  museum of the history of Paris tries to transmit. In the “Musée Histoire de Paris Carnavalet” we find a vase from the Games from 1924 in Paris next to the 2 Olympic torches, one for the Paralympics and one for the Olympics 2024. Both torches are the same only a different logo on them, same message, same spirit. The impact of these games is likely to set an example for many years to come and other hosts of the Games will be measured against this benchmark. Making history is one thing, taking care of the posterior image another one. Paris has taken of this as well.

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Electric Fun

The 60s, 70s and 80s have been fantastic precursors of the “All electric society” because of the electric music 🎶 industry that became a mass phenomenon. First of all the electric guitar allowed a wave of new music to take hold of a whole generation and probably keeps its adepts until today. E-pianos, keyboards, drum machines and synthesizers made music playing more accessible as well. You just need to plug in your instrument and you were able to produce an overwhelming sound. Other electric pleasures might include water pumps for water heaters and sprinklers. Electronic games and gadgets soon took over in children’s rooms. Of course, calculators as precursors of mobile phones and computers were another step in the progress towards the “All electric society”. Electronics are about to govern large parts of our lives and society. We better take a serious look at what we gain and what we might lose. 

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Climate Awareness

The Musée d’Orsay has prepared a wonderful walk through its permanent exhibition of late 19th and early 20th century installations to reflect upon climate and climate change. Raising awareness about the treasures lost and those we are about to lose in the next few years. Impressionist painters have depicted landscapes, cities and monuments covered in snow, which the next generations will no longer be able to enjoy the same way. The roofs of Paris covered with snow has become a feature of a distant past. Additionally, the impression of the massive steam trains crossing metal bridges appear as the daunting future of technical progress. Mixed feelings of fascination and risk associated with those machines were captured by those painters’ eyes. Nowadays we are aware of the consequences of this technical progress for our planet. The walk through museum with a focus on climate related paintings is eye opening indeed. (Image: Extract of Éduard Veuillard, Le jardin des Tuileries, Musée d’Orsay, Paris) 

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Geo-politics of Electricity

Think of a society only based on electric energy. In the 21st century this energy stems from photovoltaic cells, wind and water turbines as well as geothermal energy sources. Each region of the globe and even within a country has its own kind of access to electric power specifically originating in the geographic and geologic context. This means we are returning to a phase in which “natural monopolies” of power generation have their comeback. Rather than nation wide power monopolies, the regional specificity becomes important again. Of course, this raises a lot of geopolitical issues and maybe tensions. Local economies will develop their own electricity provision. Larger and smaller companies can reorganize their power provision themselves. Energy monopolies become outdated if the infrastructure and legal frameworks are adapted to the potential of the “All electric society” conditional on new forms of “power” sharing. Electric and political power sharing will be key in the geo-politics of electricity.

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Electrifying Jobs

The transition to the “all electric society” necessitates to prepare the labor force for the upcoming challenge. The knowledge about electricity and electric appliances constitutes the basics of the knowledge base of the future. This goes far beyond the basics of physics and electrical engineering. There many processes like sharing of electric infrastructure in households, cities, in and beyond countries that have to be delt with. Investment calculations and legal issues to address the different risks involved are another area to cover in the process to prepare society for the “all electric society”.
However, the skills of professions with more direct links to the fossil fuel based technologies have a role in the phasing out of the heavy reliance on fossil fuels. Reverse engineering of such engines and heating will need people still knowledgeable of the past, when younger generations set their focus primarily on professions with links to electricity. Even using a solar powered heat pump in a home requires pipes to the existing network of radiators, for example. This will most likely be a gradual shift of the job structure and occupational requirements over at least a decade, but the shift has started already. Some might argue we need a well functioning “transitional labour market”, labour market policies and social security system for this to happen smoothly.

 

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All electric now

The shift over to the “All electric society” is easiest in sunny states like California in the USA, Africa or Southern Europe. For other regions of the globe not only the production of energy through the sun is a bit less abundant, but the storage of the sun’s energy production for deferred use is the next challenge. Countries of the globe near the equator have to balance 12 hours daylight with 12 hours night, countries far from the equator have to balance additionally more long-term between short winter days and long summer light.
Different energy storage solutions have to be envisaged.
On a daily basis or even weekly basis, battery energy storage systems (BESS) can do the trick. These systems become more costly for high capacity, longer duration storage. Battery size and price quickly become an issue. The number of electric vehicles (EVs) that have this more intelligent BESS is rising. This makes it possible to eventually use this storage capacity, if your car is sitting around your home or office for most of the time anyway. To make the “all electric society” function 24 hours, energy storage has to be planned at the same time as production and consumption patterns. The all electric prosumer will be the de-central “pro-store-sumer” in the 21st century.

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Green trade flows

The statistics on trade flows reported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs have a comprehensive data base in the background. The descriptive inspection of the raw data on trade flows comprising solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles shows a stark imbalance of how future-proof the trade between countries is. The New York Times (David Gelles et al. 2025-6-30) has put this information into an impressive graphical design to show the magnitude of the imbalance of how China trades in green products with the world and how the USA is losing out on future-proof low carbon emission trade. Despite the fact that China is still heavily emitting CO2 today due to burning coal for electrical power, the investments at home and trade with the world is moving into the opposite direction. We have seen many of these industries at risk in Europe, like solar panel production, batteries and increasingly electric vehicles, without the western countries getting organized to address crucial business and economic challenges. Falling behind in these industries and trade will shift global balances in the near future. Renovation through innovation is more promising than holding on for another decade to inefficient and more polluting energy sources. Repairs of homes and buildings have long lasting effects, which we can, nevertheless, change today.

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Pervasive waste

From time to time waste from so-called highly developed countries is making headlines and then it is forgotten again. Huge amounts of plastic waste gets shipped for example from the USA to Malaysia in containers regularly (NYT 2025-7-1). The dumping of waste in other countries where it is cheaper to waste the waste is a cynical practice. Not only is the potential for reuse and a circular economy disregard, the little control that is exercised how the waste is treated afterwards is neglected. Some might just end up in our oceans later on or find its way in our food chains. The recent discovery of lots of nuclear waste at 5000 m depth in the sea in another extreme example of this practice to dump waste affecting all of is when profits have been accumulated inn the hands of a few enterprises and states. Such external effects as they are called in economic theory are part of the standard economic thinking. The challenge is to detect such behavior, persecute or better prevent it. This calls on countries who produce the waste to check for the contamination potential and treat their own waste. Fukushima has lots of barrels of nuclear waste waiting. The pervasive nature of this waste will make it last for thousands of years. “Beggar thy neighbor” with your waste is a major default of our current economic and social model. It remains an unresolved puzzle why mankind continues to work towards its own extinction. (Image: Le grisou, Constantin Meunier, MRBAB, Brussels). 

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Energetic Architecture

The link between energy and architecture is all to obvious. For at least a century we believed that energy had to serve architecture and could be relegated to second place. With global warming the overriding importance sits with energy concerns for some years to come. We spend billions to repair the bad architectural and fast growth architecture of the post 2WW era of architecture, especially the construction boom of the 60s and 70s. The driver of change in architecture has moved from the period of social architecture (60s, 70s) to energetic architecture. Energy in architecture has multiple dimensions. Whereas a century ago the shift consisted in the installation of central heating systems in the northern hemisphere of the globe at scale, in the 21st century the concern there shifts to isolation from heat (and cold) to more efficient, less polluting energy provision. Cooling houses and office spaces during extended periods and higher peeks of heat, ask for substantial revisions of existent architecture and the next generation of energetic architecture. Before long, we shall also think more seriously about the handling of water in architecture, a topic which is closely linked to energy consumption and design.
From a sociological point of view we are used to ask questions of social inequality related to this issue as well. We are on the way to move into a society of energy-rich versus energy poor households and enterprises. Financing of adaptations of housing and offices to the energetic challenges is likely to create severe additional inequalities, which exacerbate the already existing ones. If you have no money to spare, you will be unable to invest into energy savings with more distant returns on investment (ROI). At older age you are less resistant to heat waves and causes health disadvantages. If previous investments were impossible or the urgency for energetic architecture was neglected for too long, additional health inequalities shall arise.
The “Deutsches Architekturmuseum” has built an exhibition around this theme, which widens the perspective of architecture and energy. This highlights the additional concern for energetic architecture and people living or working in (modern) architecture.
(Image Trier Roman arena 2025)

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Global warming

The annual update of the global warming indicators (source: Earth system science data 2025-6) gives more reasons to worry about the future of our climate. The objective to limit global warming to +1.5°C, established at the Paris climate agreement in 2015, is no longer achievable. This is the hard evidence based on the global network of scientific data collections and their projections. Fossil fuels are a major cause, deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions as well (Forster et al. 2025). As a consequence, human-induced warming of average surface temperatures and flows of heat into oceans continue. The first consequences, we witness in many parts of the world already. France is particularly affected (Le Monde 2025-6-20, p.7). What used to be called “natural disasters” is better described as long-term consequences of human-induced global changes like global warming. About time to take our CO2 footprint even more seriously. The “All electric society” can reduce reliance on fossil fuels considerably, as of now.