In Brief...
World News Review
Sources: Reuters; The Independent (U.K.).
Contributors: Paul Kieffer and Cecil Maranville
Germany's Environmental Policy Increases Dependence on Russia
This autumn has been quite positive for Germany's Minister of the Environment
Jürgen Trittin, a member of the the Green Party, the governing coalition's
junior partner. After some initial criticism, his government's subsidy
program for wind-powered electricity was renewed with only minor modification.
A new government-subsidized geothermal electricity plant near Berlin also
went on line. But perhaps the greatest satisfaction for Minister Trittin was
the decommissioning in mid-November of the first of Germany's 19 atomic
energy plants in Stade near Hamburg.
When Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder replaced Helmut Kohl's government
in 1998, the Green Party made the elimination of nuclear power plants a condition
for its participation in Schroeder's coalition. The electricity industry
initially protested. However, after receiving assurances that its nuclear
plants would be able to remain on line another 20 years, the industry acquiesced
and began preparations for alternative energy sources.
Atomic power plants currently provide approximately 30 percent of Germany's
electrical consumption. Minister Trittin's alternative electrical generation
projects may help the environment, but fall far short of making up the gap
that will be left by abandoning atomic power. The only natural resource that
Germany has in abundance is coal, but as a signatory to the Kyoto protocol—and
a vocal critic of U.S. President George W. Bush for abandoning that agreement—Germany
is committed to reducing its use of coal. Oil has to be imported and is subject
to the same Kyoto restraints as coal.
Clean-burning natural gas is the logical choice for Germany's looming
energy gap. That gap, however, has important foreign policy implications for
Chancellor Schroeder's government and its successors. To replace all
electricity now generated by atomic power, Germany's consumption of
natural gas would increase by an estimated 50 percent. Since demand is increasing,
that figure will be higher by 2021, when the last atomic plant goes off line.
Currently 52 percent of Germany's natural gas requirements are met by
imports from the Netherlands, Norway, Britain and Denmark. Much of the remaining
amount comes from Russia. And of those suppliers, only Russia has the reserves
needed to provide Germany's growing appetite for natural gas.
Unless a future conservative German government reverses the abandonment
of nuclear power or decides to drastically increase the use of domestic coal—and
violate the Kyoto protocol—Germany will be dependent on energy imports
from Russia for at least a third of its electrical power needs. By 2010 Russia
will provide more than half of Germany's energy imports from all sources (oil
and natural gas). Ensuring that the gas pipeline from Russia remains open
or responding to its unforeseen closure will surely impact Germany's foreign
policy initiatives toward the east.
"Disease of Mass Destruction"
"In two short decades HIV/AIDS has tragically become the premier
disease of mass destruction," said Dr. Jack Chow of the World Health
Organization in a recent news conference. He added, "The death odometer
from HIV/AIDS is now at 8,000 a day and accelerating."
The sobering statistical diagnosis: Over 40 million people are currently
infected with HIV/AIDS, 21⁄2 million of them children under 15 years
of age; over 3 million died from the disease in 2002; 5 million more people
were infected this year.
It is hard to absorb the meaning of these figures. Compare them with the
deaths by terrorist acts. What impact would terrorism have on the world if
it slew 3 million people this year? The world would reel in horror and galvanize
into action to counter the threat.
Or what if a nation murdered that many people by act of war? The world's
nations would denounce the deed as genocide. As it is, these are largely just
statistics to most of the Western world—but not to the people in the
midst of the plague.
Sub-Saharan Africa has so far borne the brunt of current infections and
death. While Southern Africa represents less than 2 percent of the world's
population, the region has roughly 30 percent of the world's current
cases of the disease.
But that will change, with infections spreading rapidly throughout India,
China, Indonesia, Russia and many of the former Soviet satellites. India is
thought to be underreporting and underestimating the infection rate there.
New estimates project that in 2010 the infection rate will be 25 million people.
Because it can take up to a decade or more for the disease to begin to kill
after infection, this insidious evil will keep scything a wide swath of
death in mind-numbing numbers into the indefinite future. It is truly
reason for Christians to cry out, "Your Kingdom come," praying for the
only power that can truly heal the world of this and its many other plagues.
That power is the government of God under the reigning hand of Jesus Christ.
—WNP
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