Thom Hartmann: Lessons from Abroad; Germany's renewable energy program.

Given that Germany is one of the cloudiest countries in Europe, right up there with England - the sun only shines for about a third of the year - it seems crazy that it would have more solar panels per capita than any other country in the world, and that it employs over 40,000 people in the solar power industry. But the Germans made it happen. They figured out a way to use their existing banking and power systems to begin to shift from dependence on coal and nuclear power to solar. And all it took were pretty small tweaks, in the grand scheme of things.
We can and should do the same - begin to invest in solar and other renewable forms of energy in America. For far too long, we have been hooked on oil and we continue to pay a terrible price for it, economically, politically, militarily. We need to wean ourselves from it both for our own future survival and prosperity, and because so often other countries of the world look to us as an example of what they can or should do.
Learn more in chapter seven, "Cool Our Fever", of "Rebooting the American Dream".
-Thom