Sources of Energy
So, we need to do something now to mitigate climate change. Some have suggested that the concern is that we will run out of fossil fuels… this however, is not the case. The evidence for this is that, although we have burned a tremendous amount of fossil fuels, the oxygen content in the atmosphere has remained steady at about 21%. This is a clear indication that there is a tremendous amount of fossil fuels still buried within the earth because burning all of the fossil fuels will entirely deplete the oxygen in the atmosphere. This is based on the chemical equation listed above. So, we will not run out of fossil fuels, but we still need to proactively deal with this crisis. Some of the reasons are the geopolitical uncertainty of our energy supply, disruptions of our energy supply, regional conflicts, cost, etc.(2) Many have proposed the development of renewable energy sources. However, only 9% of our current energy use is produced by renewable energy. Much of the renewable energy is subsidized to make it cost effective, but even so the sources of solar, wind and biomass are currently cost prohibitive. While these efforts to increase the use of renewable energy and decrease the production of CO 2 are laudable, when I look at the future energy demand of China and other developing countries, I cannot imagine that renewables are a viable comprehensive solution…. But, I believe there is one source of energy… one that not many people talk about, that if it could be adequately developed would be able to supply a tremendous amount of virtually clean energy… and that is the focus of this unit….FUSION… controlled fusion… capturing the energy of the sun!
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