In 10 years time? 20 years? 30 years? We don’t know exactly when. But it is certain that in a few years time our planet will no longer have available as much usable energy as we consume today. There will be less fossil energy, oil in particular. Renewable energy sources alone do not appear to be capable of supplying, rapidly and in sufficient quantities, the volumes of energy equivalent to those currently available from oil, gas and coal.
At the same time, it will almost certainly be necessary to fight a more vigorous battle against the emission of greenhouse gases, if global warming leads us towards serious climatic
changes. In this case, it will be necessary to significantly reduce discharge of carbon dioxide, CO 2, and to limit our consumption of fossil fuels.
Greenhouse effect or energy shortages, which will have the worst impact and be the first to happen? No one can say. In both situations, energy savings will soon become mandatory: we won’t die as a result; man has seen other difficult situations during his history! And also, who knows, the development of forms of energy that are still only on the drawing board could have important and positive surprises in store. Nuclear fission, first: if we manage one day to control the technique of the super-generators and the management of radioactive waste, we will have thousands of years of energy available to us.
- Nuclear fusion, the source of the sun’s energy, could also become an abundant source of energy, if we manage to master the very complex techniques involved.
- The fuel cell and the control of hydrogen that is its source of energy, could contribute enormously to solving the pollution problems in our cities.
Alongside these ideas, for which research programmes have already been launched, some futuristic ideas will perhaps come to fruition in the very long term … on condition that their costs are not too high! |