The human race has an insatiable appetite for energy. Since harnessing fire many thousands of years ago, humanity has developed new ways to power civilization. Fortunes have been made, wars have been fought and great harm has been done to the environment in the quest for energy.
For most of human history, energy was obtained from the plants and animals in the natural environment. Whole regions were denuded to provide wood for fires for warmth and cooking. Animals were domesticated and bred to provide transportation. Some humans enslaved others to provide the energy needed to build and run civilization.
The development of coal and oil as sources of energy have had a huge impact on the world in the past several hundred years. Destruction of the environment and terrible pollution followed. Now we are faced with global warming caused we are told by the injection of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels.
In the last century, radioactivity was discovered and explored. Fierce weapons of enormous destructive potential threaten human civilization. Reactors were designed and put into service to provide electrical energy. A great deal of resources and technology were dedicated to boiling water for steam turbines. Again, destruction of the landscape and pollution of the environment have been a result of the use of nuclear power. In addition, there is a danger of terrorist attacks on nuclear installation and nuclear accidents.
There is now a push to develop sustainable sources of energy that do not lead to environmental devastation, pollution, scarce supplies and threats of terrorism. Wind, solar, geothermal and tidal energy systems have been developed. The primary argument against their widespread use is that they are not efficient enough or cheap enough to solve our energy needs. The counter point has been made that if the fossil fuel and nuclear industries did not receive huge government subsidies and tax break, the alternative energy sources might already be competitive in price.
In addition, it has been pointed out that if vehicles were more efficient in miles per gallon and if buildings were better insulated, there would be a smaller need for new energy supplies. An additional benefit would be the creation of millions of new and badly needed jobs.
There is an argument being made that nuclear energy is the best alternative to a continued reliance on fossil fuels. Issues such as reduce carbon dioxide emissions and reduction of other types of pollution as well as reduced dependencies on diminishing world oil supplies are being discussed.
In future posts, I will discuss the pros and cons for nuclear energy and try to bring some clarity to the current discussion.
The original energy source:
