Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog has written an excellent article for the May 2005 issue of Technology Review. He predicts that mainstream environmental thought will change on four issues, population growth, urbanization, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power. The last one, nuclear power, is extremely important and if the environmental movement embraces it as Brand suggests, hydrogen power would take a giant leap forward. Why so? Nuclear power could provide the necessary electrical power for electrolysis to extract hydrogen from water in sufficient quantities to power the hydrogen economy. Electric power in large quantity has been one of the biggest hurdles for hydrogen to clear yet animosity directed at nuclear generation has made this alternative difficult to offer, even though it is a solution.
Brand makes the point:
There are a great many more environmental romantics than there are scientists. That’s fortunate, since their inspiration means that most people in developed societies see themselves as environmentalists. But it also means that scientific perceptions are always a minority view, easily ignored, suppressed, or demonized if they don’t fit the consensus story line.
He goes on to say:
everything must be done to increase energy efficiency and decarbonize energy production. Kyoto accords, radical conservation in energy transmission and use, wind energy, solar energy, passive solar, hydroelectric energy, biomass, the whole gamut. But add them all up and it’s still only a fraction of enough. Massive carbon “sequestration” (extraction) from the atmosphere, perhaps via biotech, is a widely held hope, but it’s just a hope. The only technology ready to fill the gap and stop the carbon dioxide loading of the atmosphere is nuclear power
No matter your view of nuclear energy, but especially if you are opposed to it, consider Brand's views. They can at least be the basis for a public debate possibly leading to an informed consensus instead of the quasi-religious animosity that exists today. Link via Boing Boing
