... of our planet's natural environment.
People think nuclear power is the devil, but hybrid gas-solar-wind electric power systems, and fuels made from natural gas or agricultural products (for example: hydrogen, synthetic gasoline, ethanol, bio-diesel...) will be the ruin of our world civilization.
A world economy powered by nuclear power or purely "renewable" sources like wind or solar power would look nothing like the high energy consumer economy many affluent people now enjoy.
The only way to quit fossil fuels is to quit fossil fuels. It's like smoking. You haven't quit smoking if you've switched to "light" cigarettes, or cut a pack-a-day habit to half-a-pack-a-day habit.
Hybrid natural gas-wind systems are a half-a-pack a day habit.
Sadly the largest industrial projects on earth today involve the extraction and distribution of natural gas. This will destroy the world we know.
We might not have to mine uranium from the ocean for a long time. We could build nuclear power plants that utilize existing stockpiles of depleted uranium, plutonium from nuclear weapons, spent fuel from existing light water nuclear power plants, and mine tailings.
If we do start mining uranium from the ocean a few centuries from now, the supply is continuously replenished by natural geologic processes.
It may all seem like magic, and a dangerous magic to some people, but the science is sound.
The U.S. Navy is doing some interesting research applicable to a future without fossil fuels. They are also devising systems that use nuclear energy to extract carbon dioxide from seawater to make fuels for aircraft, turbines, and diesel engines.
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