The globally installed small wind capacity has reached more than 576 MW as of the end of 2011. China accounts for 40%, and the USA for 35% of this capacity. More than 120 MW of new small wind capacity was added in the year 2011, a global capacity increase of 27%.

Scientists have produced the largest flexible, plastic solar cells in Australia – 10 times the size of what they were previously able to – thanks to a new solar cell printer that has been installed at CSIRO. The printer has allowed researchers from the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC) – a collaboration between CSIRO, The University of Melbourne, Monash University and industry partners – to print organic photovoltaic cells the size of an A3 sheet of paper.

Droughts, floods, crop failures, invading species and diseases – climate change impacts of today and tomorrow come with a raft of buzz words. But the science behind our understanding of the potential consequences of global warming is both much broader and much more fragmented.

A vision for the future: if the Bundestag, i.e. German Parliament, passes a water conservation law that requires builders to install efficient fixtures, promotes private retrofits such as water-saving showers, toilets, washing machines and dishwashers and demands a water penny from large consumers, we will soon consume only half as much water as we do today. Every year 25,000 liters of water per capita would thus be saved, i.e. 250,000 liters in ten years. A family of four would save a million liters of water without sacrificing any comfort.

Even in today’s water-rich Central Europe we are heading for a water shortage. Our water is being used, contaminated and wasted. Poison in water, chemical waste, fertilizers and air pollution threaten our most important means of survival.

All founders of religions, philosophers and wisdom teachers from all periods and civilizations knew about that. The wonderful young man from Nazareth, an ecologist even 2,000 years ago, said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Responsible handling of water is religious service. And to those who wanted to follow him, ecologically-minded Jesus called out; “Be springs of living water.” He did not speak of impure or contaminated water. Parson Kneipp taught in the 19th century: “Aqua sanat – water heals!“