• Germany: In conservative Bavaria, citizens force bold action on protecting nature
• Germany says emissions dropped in 2018 amid warm weather
• In Germany, consumers embrace a shift to home batteries

• Celebrating 25 years of dedication to health and life: Maharishi AyurVeda Health Centre, Bad Ems, Germany
• Erfurt, Germany: Role of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture in creating ideal cities
• Berlin: Congress of medical doctors celebrates German Ayurveda Association's 30-year Jubilee

• German farmers see big crop losses due to warm weather: paper
• Toxic particle linked to diesel kills 6,000 a year in Germany: Agency
• Half of German companies hit by sabotage, spying in last two years, BSI says

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Germany: In conservative Bavaria, citizens force bold action on protecting nature
25 April 2019 - Alarmed at steep declines in insects and wildlife, Bavarian voters backed a referendum aimed at changing destructive farming practices and repairing damaged ecosystems. Now, Bavaria's initiatives are inspiring other German states to move to stem the loss of biodiversity. (more)

Germany says emissions dropped in 2018 amid warm weather
2 April 2019 - Germany's greenhouse gas emissions fell 4.2 percent in 2018, the first major decrease in Europe's biggest economy four years, thanks in large part to warm weather. Overall emissions in Germany last year were about 30.6 percent lower than in 1990. One measure that will help reduce Germany's emissions is a plan to phase out the burning of coal for electricity by 2038. (more)

In Germany, consumers embrace a shift to home batteries
18 March 2019 - A growing number of homeowners in Germany are installing batteries to store solar power. As prices for energy storage systems drop, they are adopting a green vision: a solar panel on every roof, an EV in every garage, and a battery in every basement. More than 120,000 German households and small-business owners -- and an estimated 1 million people worldwide -- have dug deep into their pockets to invest in solar units with battery storage since lower-cost systems appeared on the market five years ago. (more)

Volkswagen moves to rapidly increase production of electric cars
12 March 2019 - Volkswagen plans to rapidly increase its production of electric cars as it tries to transform itself from an emissions cheat to a leader in bringing battery-powered transportation to the masses. The company will build 22 million electric cars through 2028, Herbert Diess, Volkswagen's chief executive, said Tuesday (12 March) at a news conference at company headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. The company, which currently sells only a small number of electric cars, has set a new goal well above the 15-million-vehicle mark it had previously forecast. (more)

Germany sees solar installations spike to nearly 3GW in 2018
18 February 2019 - Germany's solar market witnessed its strongest growth in half a decade during 2018, adding almost 3 gigawatts of capacity, according to industry figures. The German solar association Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW) said the 2018 figures represented a 68 percent increase over those for the previous year. ... This makes Germany the fourth-largest PV market in the world. (more)

Germany: Bavaria campaigners abuzz as bees petition forces farming changes
14 February 2019 - A petition in Bavaria on preserving species diversity, popularly known as the 'save the bees' campaign, has garnered sufficient support to enforce significant changes to the state's farming practices. Among the demands are for 20 percent of land to be made bee-friendly within the next six years, and 30 percent by 2030. (more)

Germany sees surge in new solar power as prices drop
31 January 2019 - Germany added almost 3 gigawatts of new solar power generation in 2018, about 68 percent more than the previous year amid a drop in prices for new systems. Germany plans to switch off its nuclear plants by 2022. . . . At 46 GW, Germany has the fourth largest installed solar capacity . . . (more)

Germany sets 2038 deadline to end coal use
27 January 2019 - In a pioneering move, a German government-appointed panel has recommended that Germany stop burning coal to generate electricity by 2038 at the latest, as part of efforts to curb climate change. The Coal Commission reached a deal early Saturday (26 January) following months of wrangling that were closely watched by other coal-dependent countries. (more)

Germany to move ahead quickly on implementing coal exit
27 January 2019 - Germany's ruling coalition will move quickly to begin implementing the recommendations of a government-appointed commission for exiting coal power by 2038, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told German broadcaster ARD on Sunday (27 January). (more)

Not so fast: Most Germans favor speed limits on the Autobahn
26 January 2019 - A majority of Germans favor setting maximum speed limits for Germany's famously fast Autobahns to help battle climate change, according to a poll published on Saturday (26 January). (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Celebrating 25 years of dedication to health and life: Maharishi AyurVeda Health Centre, Bad Ems, Germany
13 June 2018 - The attention of the Ayurveda world turned to Bad Ems, Germany, this year on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre. More than 200 invited guests celebrated the event in the historic Hacker's Grand Hotel. Political leaders and renowned Ayurveda representatives attended, and praised the Health Centre and Ayurveda. Many guests of honour also expressed their desire for greater popularity of Ayurvedic medicine in Germany, including the Indian Consul General Pratibha Parkar, who called for greater support from health insurance companies, so that more people could benefit from Ayurveda. (more)

Erfurt, Germany: Role of Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture in creating ideal cities
9 May 2014 - Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's principles for creating ideal cities include living and working in Maharishi Vastu (Vedic architecture) buildings, as well as eating locally grown organic food, explained Dr Peter Swan, international expert on Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture, who designed and has taught a popular course in that subject in many countries. Maharishi outlined specific criteria for crops grown according to Vedic Organic Agriculture, including that the consciousness of the farmer, as well as the collective consciousness of the society, should be in accord with natural law. These and other criteria are being upheld through a garden project at the Maharishi Peace Palace in Erfurt, Germany, where Dr Swan gave a recent workshop. (more)

Berlin: Congress of medical doctors celebrates German Ayurveda Association's 30-year Jubilee
25 November 2013 - The 30-year Jubilee Congress of the German Ayurveda Association, an association of medical doctors, was recently held in Berlin, attended by over 100 doctors and researchers. Founded in 1983 under the inspiration of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the association is the oldest doctors' association for Ayurveda outside of India. Among the founding members was Dr Ulrich Bauhofer, who spent many years working with Maharishi researching Ayurvedic treatments and herbal remedies. Dr Bauhofer gave inspiring opening remarks on the theme of the Veda, explaining its importance in the development of human consciousness. He also described practical medical applications of Vedic knowledge in daily life through Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care. (more)

Germany: Congress highlights contributions of German Ayurveda Association and European Ayurveda Medical Association (EURAMA)
25 November 2013 - The German Ayurveda Association holds the distinction of being the oldest doctors' association for Ayurveda outside of India. Founded in 1983 under the inspiration of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the association has contributed substantially to bringing the benefits of Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care to people around the world, while at the same time making Ayurveda more of a household world in Germany. The European Ayurveda Medical Association (EURAMA), founded in 2008, is presided over by Austrian medical doctor Wolfgang Schachinger who manages an Ayurvedic health centre in that country. Its goal is to integrate the practices and treatments of Maharishi Ayur-Veda with those of other complementary and integrative medical organizations throughout Europe. (more)

Germany: Growing interest in integrative medicine seen at Berlin medical conference
25 November 2013 - Starting in the 1980s when he introduced Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care to the world, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi emphasized the need to integrate the practices of the world's oldest, most comprehensive system of natural medicine with the technologies of modern medicine, and to synthesize them into the most effective programme. Presentations at the recent Congress celebrating the 30-Year Jubilee of the German Ayurveda Association revealed the degree to which modern science, through its techniques and methods, is discovering and employing ancient principles of good health. (more)

Germany: Maharishi Ayur-Veda presented at 30-Year Jubilee Congress in Berlin
25 November 2013 - During the 30-Year Jubilee Congress of the German Ayurveda Association held recently in Berlin, several experts in Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care presented research and knowledge in this field. Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, spoke on Transcendental Meditation and his research on cardiovascular disease. Austrian cardiologist Dr Rainer Picha spoke on the discovery of Veda in human physiology. Lothar Pirc, director of the renowned Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Bad Ems, Germany, made several contributions, and Dr Wolfgang Schachinger, a medical doctor from Austria who is president of the European Ayurveda Medical Association (EURAMA), gave a seminar on a purification therapy that can be done at home. (more)

Germany: Maharishi Ayur-Veda research contributes to increasing popularity, acceptance of Ayurvedic health care
25 November 2013 - In addition to featuring expert presentations on research in the field of Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care, the recent 30-Year Jubilee Congress of the German Ayurveda Association served as a platform to inform leaders of society that the world's oldest, most comprehensive system of natural medicine offers the solution to the current crisis in health care, as well as providing both preventive and treatment programmes for chronic diseases. (more)

Germany: Professors present on complementary medicine at German Ayurveda Association gathering
25 November 2013 - 'Fascination Ayurveda', a conference held recently in Berlin to celebrate the 30-Year Jubilee of the German Ayurveda Association, started with a presentation by Dr. med. Ulrich Bauhofer, one of the first physicians trained in Maharishi Ayur-Veda health care. His talk, 'A Quiet Medicine for a Loud Time', brought out Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's core principles of Ayurveda. Of ten presentations on the second day of the conference, about half were given by professors from European universities, some of whom were already involved in complementary medicine. (more)

Germany: Maharishi Ayurveda clinic creates customized health plans, treatments, medicines
27 July 2013 - At the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Bad Ems, Germany, an individualized treatment plan is designed for each patient, based on an initial consultation that includes a special form of Ayurvedic pulse diagnosis. How this differs from the usual type of consultation, said one patient, 'is that the doctor here takes proper time to understand the person. One other thing that totally inspired me was this pulse reading--where you're told things that have not been mentioned before and which are correct.' (more)

Germany: Maharishi Ayurveda clinic treats health disorders of modern civilization
27 July 2013 - Panchakarma is an effective Ayurvedic treatment that helps to detoxify and rejuvenate the body in three steps. Dr Karin Pirc, medical director of the Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centre in Bad Ems, Germany, explained that Panchakarma depends on the self-healing power of the body and assists in restoring balance. Because the treatment is particularly effective at purifying and removing toxins, it is well suited to more modern health disorders caused by poor diet, environmental pollutants, and high stress. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

German farmers see big crop losses due to warm weather: paper
24 June 2018 - German farmers could lose around half their harvests -- and in some cases all of them -- due to unusually warm temperatures and dryness seen in May, the head of the German Farmers' Association said in an interview published on Sunday (24 June). 'We had the warmest May this year since weather records have been kept,' Joachim Rukwied, the head of the farmers' group told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. 'In the north and the east, the crops have dried out. As a result, we expect crop losses of 50 to 60 percent in some regions, all the way to total losses.' (more)

Toxic particle linked to diesel kills 6,000 a year in Germany: Agency
8 March 2018 - Some 6,000 early deaths linked to nitrogen oxides (NOx) are recorded each year in Germany, the Federal Environmental Agency said on Thursday (8 March), providing more evidence of the health hazards posed by the toxic particles mostly produced by diesel engines. The Environmental Agency (UBA) also said that NOx causes one million people to fall ill each year and that levels of the toxic particle are higher in 70 cities than the limit set under air quality standards. (more)

Half of German companies hit by sabotage, spying in last two years, BSI says
21 July 2017 - More than half the companies in Germany have been hit by spying, sabotage, or data theft in the last two years, the German IT industry association Bitkom said on Friday [21 July], and estimated the attacks caused around 55 billion euros' worth of damage a year. Arne Schoenbohm, President of Germany's BSI federal cyber agency, said many big companies and especially those operating critical infrastructure were generally well-prepared for cyber attacks. But many smaller and medium-sized companies did not take the threat seriously enough, he said. (more)

Gastric reflux drugs may be tied to dementia risk
16 February 2016 - Repeated use of a certain class of drugs for gastric reflux or peptic ulcers was linked with a higher risk for dementia among patients in Germany, researchers say. The drugs, known as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), include lansoprazole (Prevacid), manufactured by Novartis, as well as esomeprazole (Nexium), and omeprazole (Prilosec), both manufactured by AstraZeneca. Regular PPI users were 44 percent more likely to develop dementia than those who were not receiving the drugs, the authors reported in JAMA Neurology. (more)

Germany's coal power plants emit high levels of mercury
4 January 2016 - Coal-fired power plants in Germany are producing seven tonnes of hazardous mercury each year, a recent study has shown. If true, the country would be the worst European emitter of the heavy metal after Poland and Greece. Mercury, which, when released into the world's atmosphere eventually makes its way into the food chain, has been shown to cause neurological damage and some cancers. (more)

Germany re-imposes border controls as it struggles to manage the huge flow of desperate people (+ Reuters video)
13 September 2015 - Germany re-imposed border controls on Sunday after Europe's most powerful nation acknowledged it could scarcely cope with thousands of asylum seekers arriving every day. At an emergency meeting on Monday, interior ministers from the EU's 28 member states will discuss Commission proposals to redistribute about 160,000 asylum seekers across the bloc. Germany, Europe's largest and richest economy, has become a magnet for migrants making journeys by sea and land. Now Germany has joined smaller and poorer countries such as Greece and Hungary that are struggling to manage the huge flow of desperate people. (more)

Germany struggles to cope with growing number of migrants
13 July 2015 - The number of people applying for asylum in Germany more than doubled to almost 180,000 in the first half of the year, officials said Monday, acknowledging that police are struggling to keep tabs on everyone who enters the country. Many Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghans who arrive on Europe's shores by boat try to continue their journey to Germany or Scandinavia. (more)

German party accused of neo-Nazi traits set for EU parliament
21 May 2014 - Almost 70 years after Nazi Germany crumbled, a radical right-wing party that critics say shows an affinity for Hitler's National Socialist movement looks set to enter the European Parliament for the first time due to a change in electoral law. The National Democratic Party (NPD), described by German intelligence as 'racist, anti-Semitic and revisionist', has put stopping mass immigration at the core of its election program for this week's vote. Abolition of a German law allowing only parties with three percent of the vote to claim seats will almost certainly open the door to the NPD, which has been campaigning under slogans including 'Money for granny instead of Sinti and Roma' and 'the boat is full'. 'We say Europe is the continent of white people and it should remain that way,' Udo Voigt, the lead candidate for the NPD, told Reuters in a rare interview. Political scientist Hajo Funke, an expert on the far right, said the NPD copied many ideas from National Socialism; but while the Nazis said in their early years they wanted to expel the Jews from Germany, the NPD sought expulsion of Turks, Muslims and immigrants in general. (more)

German study finds cannabis use triggered 2 deaths
26 February 2014 - Cannabis use likely triggered fatal complications that led to the deaths of two men with underlying health conditions, according to scientists in Germany. The cases involved two outwardly healthy young men, aged 23 and 28, who died unexpectedly after smoking cannabis. 'To our knowledge, these are the first cases of suspected fatal cannabis intoxications where full post-mortem investigations (...) were carried out,' the researchers said. Researchers concluded that people who are at high risk for cardiovascular diseases should avoid the drug. Dr David Nutt, who is chairman of Britain's Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs and wasn't involved in the study, said the researchers had presented an 'exceptionally complete collection of evidence in support of their theory that, unusually, cannabis was the trigger for these two tragedies.' (more)

Germany sees threat from returning Syria militants
26 February 2014 - Germany faces an increased threat of attack due to around a dozen German militants who have returned from the conflict in Syria with specialist knowledge of weapons and bomb-making, German intelligence officers said. There were signs that veterans of the conflict returning to other European countries had started to plan attacks but had been thwarted, according to Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV). Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Reuters in an interview published on Wednesday that Syria was becoming a risk for all European countries because of the number of fighters who had travelled there. Britain this week arrested four people on suspected terrorism offences related to Syria, including a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner. British police have already arrested 16 people on suspicion of such offences this year, some as young as 17, compared to 24 such arrests in all of 2013. (more)