It was also meant to serve as a symbol of a European identity, an identity intended to move the continent beyond centuries of warfare and toward unprecedented harmony.
On the whole, they reckon, a discount rate of about 2.6% appears to apply out well beyond a century.
But look much beyond a century and the beneficiaries become too distant to count much in our mental calculus.Discount rates, in other words, are high.
It's because, from Napoleon through Stalin and beyond, a century and a half of blood-soaked history taught them that untrammelled national power seldom ends by reaching a salutary balance.
The lead author of the new study, Dr. Hans von Storch of Germany's GKSS research center, disagreed, saying his conclusion was simply that the old method of integrating climate clues from beyond a century ago was flawed.
There have been 125 matches stretching back beyond a century.
"Silver will last longer," he says, "but not beyond this century".
If we are to survive beyond this century, we must fundamentally alter our understanding of security.
Nevertheless, even faced with weakening demand prospects, outdated investment patterns are driving fossil fuel companies to waste trillions of dollars in developing reserves and infrastructure that will be stranded as the world moves beyond 20th century energy.
It's time that those who lead development institutions realize the only way to be taken seriously is to move beyond 19th century energy sources to our modern energy future.
