Uncertainty principles

Traditional (West) German politics in the postwar era was very easy to understand. There were the Social Democrats (SPD) on the left, the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) on the right, and the much less numerous Free Democrats (FDP) in the middle. Typically, neither of the larger parties had an outright majority, so the small FDP effectively decided who could govern by choosing a coalition partner, a model sometimes described as a tail wagging the dog. With the rise of the Green Party in the 1980s (later merged with the GDR opposition's Bündnis90) and the emergence of the Left Party (Die Linke) from a merger of the East German PDS and a breakaway group from the SPD, the old dog-wagging order has given way to a new uncertainty, where arithmetic alone predicts that many more combinations should be possible, although there are still some taboos surrounding the Left Party and possible combinations involving green and conservative partners. After the 2005 election, the larger parties wriggled their way out of the necessity of forming a coalition involving either two smaller partners, or even the unloved leftists, by hitching up together to form the grand coalition headed by chancellor Angela Merkel. The trouble with that is, of course, that the smaller parties find it easier to gain profile against such a middle of the road marriage of the giants, so in this year's election the votes are likely to be spread even more widely than in the previous one, and the political outcome will be even more unpredictable. Just to add to the confusion, the Pirate Party, inspired by the eponymous Swedish organisation, has gained increasing amounts of attention and a respectable nationwide result at the recent European elections. Their main issues are the changes brought about The general elections in Germany have been more open than ever, with five main parties likely to be in the new Bundestag. So what are their policies for science, and the environment? Michael Gross reports. Uncertainty principles increasing with greater access and fish migrating north from warming seas further south. Numbers of cod, herring, haddock and halibut caught are growing. And increasing possibilities for agriculture are causing some local people to consider whether they could become independent from Denmark and generate enough local funds to be economically viable. But these local gains come at a global price. Melanie Duchin, expedition leader on the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise …