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Autumn is slowly arriving, the temperatures are falling and with them our confidence in getting through the winter in one piece is falling.
Horrendous energy prices, the fear of a blackout and the threat of Germany's economic decline determine the debates.
Many see the Ukraine war as the reason.
But that wasn't the trigger for our miserable situation, but rather the catalyst.
The truth is: Germany has gotten itself into this situation for years with an ominous combination of hostility to technology, energy policy tunnel vision and moral megalomania.
We have been gradually shutting down our nuclear power plants since 2011 and want to do without coal-fired power as soon as possible.
We dream of saving the planet with electric cars and heat pumps and rely on renewable energies like no other country in the world.
We rave about energy and mobility transitions, about "green deals" and "major transformations" - and at the same time we have difficulties building a simple airport or introducing a toll system.
In our drive to save the world, we have replaced fundamental economic and physical principles with wishful thinking and gut feelings.
The mere fact that there are still no large-scale energy storage systems without which a conversion to fluctuating wind and solar power would be possible in the first place shows how much this country lies to its own pocket.
In addition to my stage shows, I give many lectures at companies.
I regularly talk to executives and engineers there.
Long before the Ukraine crisis, there was a lack of understanding in the engine room of this country in view of the unrealistic and poorly thought-out ideas of transforming this country into an ecological model state.
»The network is the storage«, »There will no longer be a base load in the classic sense«, »the sun won't send us bills« – when satire becomes more and more reality, it becomes increasingly difficult for a satirist to score points with satire.
That was my reason for writing a serious book as a comedian.
How is Germany dealing with its future?
Are we doing the wrong things for the right reasons?
I think these questions are more relevant than ever.
After all, we Germans are a people of brilliant engineers and scientists.
Countless innovations made in Germany have changed the world for the better in the last hundred years.
But with a vague fear of new things, almost everything in this country that is not directly related to wind and solar energy, organic farming or e-mobility is viewed with skepticism, regulated or even banned.
The idea that revolutionary solutions could emerge from undesirable areas is ruled out from the outset.
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A few examples: In 2009, the cultivation of genetically modified maize was banned, two years later the starch potato Amflora came to an end.
Many German politicians are proud of having restricted research on genetically modified seeds so severely that numerous research institutions had to be closed.
And that despite the fact that more than 100 Nobel Prize winners wrote in an open letter years ago that genetic engineering methods made an immensely important contribution to the development of new crop varieties that can cope better with heat, drought and salty water.
The climate is changing so rapidly that classic breeding methods can no longer keep up.
Therefore genetic engineering.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), nuclear energy is also seen as an important component in achieving the desired climate goals.
Although the German plants were among the most modern and safest in the world, it was decided to phase out this technology and with this step most of the nuclear research departments at universities and research institutes were also destroyed.
In this way, any potential to produce climate-neutral electricity using new, improved nuclear technology is nipped in the bud.
Some time ago, scientists at the Berlin Institute for Solid State Nuclear Physics developed the concept of the dual fluid reactor.
A new type of nuclear reactor that would remove all the usual misgivings about nuclear energy.
Core meltdowns would then no longer be technically possible, since the atomic chain reaction stops automatically when a critical temperature is exceeded.
The reactor could use our previous nuclear waste as fuel and would reduce its radiation after use to such an extent that a nuclear repository would no longer be necessary.
The harvest factor of the Dual Fluid Reactor would be an amazing 800. This is the ratio of energy harvested to energy expended (in the form of research, construction, dismantling, fuel and maintenance).
For comparison: »Renewables« have a harvest factor of just 4.
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But none of these arguments could shake German concerns about nuclear energy.
That's why Dual Fluid Energy Inc. is now a Canadian company.
Natural gas production through fracking is also considered a high-risk technology in this country and is therefore not even considered by local politicians, even after the gas embargo.
According to current estimates, Germany has shale gas deposits that are thirty times higher than our annual consumption.
The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources came to the conclusion that the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing are no longer toxic as a whole due to the strong dilution.
International research is even being carried out into what is known as clean fracking, which is intended to completely do without such chemicals in the future.
But here, too, our politicians only shake their heads wearily and instead hope for natural gas deals with regimes that hang homosexuals on construction cranes and legally put women on the same level as pets.
It's absurd.
On the one hand, Germany likes to see itself as a pioneer and role model when it comes to green technologies, and at the same time much that could improve the world ecologically is regulated to death.
Instead of seeing new technologies as opportunities, people prefer to preach renunciation and impose bans on thinking.
It almost seems as if Germany is so fascinated by its problems that it would be a shame to solve them.
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Vince Ebert
Ray of light instead of blackout
Publisher: dtv
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: dtv
Number of pages: 224
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Putin's invasion should have shaken us up and served as an appeal towards more pragmatism and away from too much naivety.
But unfortunately it doesn't look like that.
Politicians still do not set framework conditions with an open-ended attitude »Let's see which technology will prevail«, but claim: »We know in advance which technology is best.
And that's the only one we're considering.« But that's exactly how we rob ourselves of our chances.
It can not go on like this.
As a person who thinks rationally, is optimistic about progress and is open to technology, I can't bear the situation we have gotten ourselves into with our ideological stubbornness.
But there are opportunities and alternatives.
Clever, disruptive ideas emerge when we broaden our horizons and look at all fields of technology.
In order to solve the major ecological and economic challenges, we need more competition, more freedom of thought and significantly fewer political regulations.
As trite as it may sound, the most important resource is in our heads.
If we only propagate despondency, risk avoidance and renunciation and not also optimism, openness to technology and enthusiasm for progress, the next social and industrial revolution will simply pass us by.