ABSTRACT
In 1971, I had just gotten my high-school diploma. Shortly after,
we had the first oil-price crisis and the Club of Rome published
the Limits to Growth. As a young student I felt closely linked to the rebellious, relieving, and questioning ideas of the German
student revolt of 1968 and I wondered how the problems of tighter
resources and destruction of nature could be overcome. I realised
quickly that one of the main dangers to our world was the use of
the fossil and atomic resources. Suppression, exploitation, spoiling
the natural environment, and conflicts about oil were already on the
agenda in those days. I realised more and more during my studies of
physics the problems associated with the use of the atomic energy;
I could not simply believe in the many “atomic” claims expressed by
my professors and put them into doubt. This was complemented in
the early 80s by the awareness of the drama of global change.
