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Engineering the Early Demise of Fossil Fuels

Received: 16 October 2014     Accepted: 29 October 2014     Published: 10 November 2014
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Abstract

Climate change is now scientific fact, and it is equally firmly established that it is of anthropogenic origins, mainly attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. If future generations are to inherit a living, and livable planet, which is self-evidently their right, the current inhabitants have no alternative but to dispense with fossil fuels as a source of power. It is demonstrated here that technically this can clearly be secured before 2050 by transitioning to renewable sources of energy, backed up by ‘clean’ nuclear power. However, effective deployment of these geographically widely dispersed power sources will require power sharing among groups of nations and grid interconnections on a continent spanning basis. It is suggested that effective progress towards the realization of such distributed systems is unlikely to be achieved without cooperative planning and implementation across many nations. An example of this is beginning to emerge in Europe.

Published in International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy (Volume 3, Issue 6)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11
Page(s) 115-122
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2014. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Climate Change, Population, Renewables, Nuclear Fission, Hydrogen

References
[1] Hansen J, et al (2013) Assessing ‘dangerous climate change’: Required reduction of carbon emissions to protect young people, future generations and nature”, PLOS ONE, 8(12), e81648.
[2] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2013. Available: http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.U1CweRCvHMM
[3] Allen MR, Frame DJ, Huntingford C, Jones CD, Lowe JA, et al (2009) Warming caused by cumulative carbon emissions toward the trillionth tonne. Nature, 458: 1163-1166
[4] Dooley J, Wise M, (2002) Why injecting CO2 into various geological formations is not the same thing as climate change mitigation”, College ParkMD: Joint Global Climate Change Research Institute, (Battelle-Pacific Northwest Nat’l Lab)
[5] Survey of Energy Resources –Hydro/Wind/Wave/Tidal,/Solar/Geothermal –World Energy Council, 2007
[6] World Consumption of Primary Energy by Energy Type and Selected Country(XLS). Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy, 31July 2006
[7] Sangster AJ, (2010) Energy for a Warming World. Springer-Verlag Ltd., London
[8] Blees T, (2008) Prescription for the Planet. www.booksurge.com
[9] Bressand F, et al (2007) Curbing global energy demand growth: the energy productivity opportunity. McKinsey Global Institute Report
[10] Kurokawa K, Energy from the Desert. (2009) http://www.iea-pvps.org/
[11] Trans-Mediterranean Interconnection for Concentrated Solar Power. German Aerospace Centre (DLR), 2006
[12] Romm JJ, (2005) The Hype about Hydrogen. Island Press, Washington DC
[13] Meadows Donella, Randers J, Meadows Dennis, (2004) Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update. Earthscan, Abingdon (ISBN-13: 978-1844071449)
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  • APA Style

    A. J. Sangster. (2014). Engineering the Early Demise of Fossil Fuels. International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy, 3(6), 115-122. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11

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    ACS Style

    A. J. Sangster. Engineering the Early Demise of Fossil Fuels. Int. J. Sustain. Green Energy 2014, 3(6), 115-122. doi: 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11

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    AMA Style

    A. J. Sangster. Engineering the Early Demise of Fossil Fuels. Int J Sustain Green Energy. 2014;3(6):115-122. doi: 10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11,
      author = {A. J. Sangster},
      title = {Engineering the Early Demise of Fossil Fuels},
      journal = {International Journal of Sustainable and Green Energy},
      volume = {3},
      number = {6},
      pages = {115-122},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijrse.20140306.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijrse.20140306.11},
      abstract = {Climate change is now scientific fact, and it is equally firmly established that it is of anthropogenic origins, mainly attributed to the burning of fossil fuels. If future generations are to inherit a living, and livable planet, which is self-evidently their right, the current inhabitants have no alternative but to dispense with fossil fuels as a source of power. It is demonstrated here that technically this can clearly be secured before 2050 by transitioning to renewable sources of energy, backed up by ‘clean’ nuclear power. However, effective deployment of these geographically widely dispersed power sources will require power sharing among groups of nations and grid interconnections on a continent spanning basis. It is suggested that effective progress towards the realization of such distributed systems is unlikely to be achieved without cooperative planning and implementation across many nations. An example of this is beginning to emerge in Europe.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Electromagnetic Engineering, School of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Riccarton Campus, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS

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