Energy

Michael's Treehouse

We need energy to fuel our modern lifestyle, but the way we generate most of our energy today involves burning fossil fuels. This creates carbon dioxide that adds to the global warming effect, and that in turn threatens to destroy our planet. With many countries growing their economies we are currently burning more fossil fuels each year, not less.

We have to think about humans living 500 years from now, not just about our children, so we have to move quickly towards generating most of our energy without producing carbon dioxide. All kinds of renewable energy are free of carbon dioxide emissions, including schemes that burn plant oils that are grown each year. Nuclear energy leaves radioactive material around for very long periods that are harmful to us, but as a short term measure it is preferable to burning fossil fuels. Perhaps the ideal long-term solution lies in nuclear fusion, but we still don't know if it will be possible to produce such a clean form of energy here on earth. As with all things, people and buisinesses tend to do things more quickly if it works out cheaper for them.

	Encourage reduction in energy waste by offering even more government grants for schemes that reduce waste, such as cavity wall insulation, use of more efficient heating systems etc.
	Provide government incentives for lifestyle changes that reduce energy consumption, such as home working, home delivery of shopping etc.
	Encourage production and use of renewable energy by putting an increasing tax on all energy created from fossil fuels. This will make renewable energy seem cheaper for everyone.
	Provide coordinated global spending on research into all forms of renewable energy for all parts of the world.
	Increase global spending on research into nuclear fusion reactors, in the hope that they will one day provide the unlimited cheap clean fuel source that we so desperately need.
	Construct nuclear power stations with long life expectancy and the cleanest possible environmental standards to meet any shortfall in energy requirements as consumption of fossil fuels decreases.