Friday, June 9, 2017

Economy: How To Stop Global Warming, Dismiss Fracking & Curb Terrorism

(Drivebycuriosity) - President Trump`s pullout from the Paris climate accord caused an outcry. Many critics claim that the world is endangered because there is nothing done against global warming. I think there is an easy way to stop global warming, which was ignored in the Paris Agreement: Extend nuclear power! This also would dismiss fracking and curb terrorism.

If the US - and other nations - would extend nuclear power significantly, then the price of electricity would drop sharply. Nuclear power is cheap & efficient, much cheaper and much more efficient than other energy sources. Energy released from uranium per gram is much more than that of fuels such as oil or coal (iop.org).

Today just 19.7% of the US electricity comes from nuclear power (eia.gov) (Natural gas creates 33.8%, Coal: 30.4%, renewables, including hydro-power, just 14.9%. If the US would raise the nuclear participation to 50% and higher then Americans would have access to much cheaper electricity. That would encourage buying & using electric cars and would reduce the demand for gasoline and therefore for crude oil. This would not only lessen the emission of green house gases, it also would lower the demand for fracking & other methods of oil drilling.

I think it is overlooked that shrinking fuel consumption also would bring down the financial support for international terrorism. Global terror networks, like ISIS, are very expensive (logistics,  administration, weapons, income of jihadists, bribery and more). The money comes from donations; ISIS & Co. don´t produce anything except terror, they don´t issue bonds & stocks. The money comes from affluent sympathizers, mostly from rich Saudi families, who are often fundamentally islamic. "Saudi Arabia remains the most prolific sponsor of international Islamist terrorism, allegedly supporting groups as disparate as the Afghanistan Taliban, Al Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Al-Nusra Front", writes Wikipedia (wikipedia ). For instance Bin Laden was a member of a wealthy Saudi family. If Saudi Arabia would lose her main income source, oil money, then they would be forced to cut down terror financing.

Cheap nuclear electricity would also replace natural gas as source for electricity, at least partly. In hot summer months the demand for natural gas is very high because air conditioning burns a lot of energy. Cheap nuclear electricity also could replace natural gas as heating source in winter.  Less demand for natural gas would also reduce the demand for fracking.

Today nuclear power is underused & unpopular because of fears stoked by Chernobyl (1986), the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear incident (2011), and the Three Mile Island accident (1979).  But the technology of the 21st century is much more advanced & secure than these stone aged plants. And if you don´t construct a nuclear plant at the ocean shore it won`t get hit by a tsunami.

I think the advantages of more nuclear energy outweigh the diminished risks by far. Cheap energy also could boost the global economy because companies have lower costs & consumers more money to spend for other goods & services.



 

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