A Long Shot

I was under the impression that nuclear power was mature enough to be considered safe. unfortunately, I was wrong like many other advocates of what was thought to be a clean source of energy. The on going Japanese disaster should make countries think twice before expanding their civilian nuclear capabilities.

Fossil fuels cause steady damage to the environment. We perhaps have a tendency to let the next generation take care of their problems. It cannot be so when there is a disaster at a nuclear plant. It causes immediate and sustained damage to thousands. Even if we evacuate nearby populations, what about lives of the hundreds of thousands of animals, at times like these especially, we don't care about? I needn't recall the damage we did to marine life during the Gulf Oil disaster last year. It is wrong to treat the earth like a business in dilution.

If there is a time people in powerful positions, keeping aside their selfish ambitions just for a little while, should consider investing in forms of energy which do not affect our environment, it is now. Solar and wind are excellent examples of clean energy. Manufacturing and installing solar panels and wind turbines is a one time cost which is insignificant compared to the pollution they can not cause. In hot countries, heat from the sun could be concentrated to boil water and run turbines.

One of the biggest reasons for pollution is that we travel and move goods. It is for us that oil companies have gone to the extent of digging up ocean floors. The cost of fuel when we include the damage it causes (yes some people have tried to calculate it), is about 5 times what we pay currently. We need a better transportation infrastructure. Battery technologies have to improve. Charging stations need to gradually replace gas stations. Moving stored electricity needs to be made cheaper than moving dirty fuel and an inefficient engine. Electric vehicles should dominate our streets.

Electric vehicles are useless if they use electricity generated using fossil fuels. That may work out to be even more inefficient. This movement must start with our generation (yes, pun intended :-))

I cannot stop thinking that a good kickstart would be a weapon that is powered by solar or wind energy. Governments will invest billions to run ahead of each other in getting better. In the end they will all decide to restrict use for only civilian purposes.

Then there will be world peace.