We can have a shorter work week and get on to further pressing problems.
We have serious problems to solve. The excesses of the industrial/nuclear era have resulted in, in many ways, degradation of our physical beings and that of our Mother Earth. Untangling this will be a challenging project for 21st Century humanity. See footnote 34 for just one example.
Although many will agree on the utility of the approach I suggest here, it is not compatible with a capitalist system or logic. Capitalism requires that the labor of the many (the more, the better; and continually increasing) becomes the wealth of the few -- not compatible with low labor and capital inputs. To make it happen will require tenacious political struggle.
Finally, for those unconvinced of the role of primary heat production in causing global warming and agreeing with the IPCC assessment that greenhouse gases are the most important factor, the solution proposed here is the better one. It is shown here that for CO2 and other greenhouse gases, nukes add a significant burden beyond that caused by hydrocarbons alone, and in comparison with solar/solar-derived power. Thus eliminating hydrocarbons and nukes will solve the problem more quickly than only eliminating hydrocarbons.
REFERENCES
- Le Treut H R, U Somerville, Y Cubasch, C Ding,A Mauritzen, and T Mokssit. Peterson and M. Prather, 2007: Historical Overview of Climate Change. In: Climate Change 2007: The
Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth
Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M.
Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.
- Semenza JC and B Menne. (2009) Climate change and infectious diseases in Europe. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 9(6):365-75. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70104-5
- Nordell B and B Gervet. (2009) Global energy accumulation and net heat emission. Int. J. Global Warming 1:378-91.
- Nordell B. (2003) Thermal pollution causes global warming. Global and Planetary Change, 38: 305-12.
- Nickolaenko AP. (2009), Concept of planetary thermal balance and global warming, J. Geophys. Res., 114, A04310, doi:10.1029/2008JA013753.
- Chaisson E. (2008). Long-Term Global Heating From Energy Usage. TRANSACTIONS AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION, 89(28), PG 253 doi:10.1029/2008EO280001.
- Georgescu-Roegen N. Energy and Economic Myths. (1975) Southern Economic Journal 41(3):347-81.
- Sanders B. (2009) The Green Zone: The Environmental Costs of Militarism, p. 49. AK Press, Oakland, Endinburgh, Baltimore.
- Tyndall, J. (1861). On the absorption and radiation of heat by gases and vapours, and on the physical connexion of radiation, absorption, and conduction. Philosophical Magazine 22, 169--94, 273--85.
- Ramanathan V and JA Coakley. (1978) Relative contributions of H20, CO2 and 03 to the greenhouse effect. Rev. Geophys and Space Phys., 16:465.
- Myhre, G, EJ Highwood, KP Shine, and F Stordal. (1998), New estimates of radiative forcing due to well mixed greenhouse gases. Geophys Res Lett 25(14):2715-18.
