The ever intensifying debate with the growing consensus on the science of global warming along with the fractured politics on the international front is nothing more than a shot across the bow. However, as we become more aware about the magnitude of the climate change through the global warming phenomenon, the old debate about whether to build nuclear energy reactors is again in full swing.

China firmly entrenched as one of Earth’s most crucial climate changers with its coal-fired power plants generating around 70 percent of China’s seemingly exponential energy needs, the world’s most populous nation have now begun boring holes deep into granite in the first steps toward building what could become the world’s largest tomb for nuclear waste.

However, our planet, its ecosystem and our society are faced with the incredibly serious problem of climate change. As already temperatures and seas have risen, global ice is melting, species have become extinct, storm damage has broken all records and annual deaths are measured in hundreds of thousands. Disposal of Nuclear waste is drawing attention just because of the fundamental technical problems and substantially higher economic costs. For those of you who are as well concerned about the disposal of nuclear waste check here, here and here and here.

Is nuclear power the solution to global warming?

Nuclear power appears to be the only possible answer to global warming, the most appalling threat to human existence in the years to come, and is the alternative remedy that the governments around the world have been resorting to, to tackle the peril. Climate is changing very rapidly and it won’t wait for the summits (read G8) to enter a concluding phase of the negotiations to limit the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the years, we have been looking for alternatives, pouring billions of dollars into windmills, solar panels, and bio-fuels. We’ve also designed extremely efficient light bulbs, air conditioners and refrigerators. But for the most part, each year we gash 400 million more tons of coal out of Earth’s crust than we did a quarter century before and what we finally do is, burn it and shoot the rest into the atmosphere.

The consequences of burning coal and other fossil fuels aren’t pretty enough. It is driving climate change, which is blamed for everything from western forest fires and Florida hurricanes to melting polar ice sheets and flooded in Himalayan hamlets. And whether you believe it or not, a coal-fired plant releases 100 times more radioactive material than an equivalent nuclear reactor - right into the air along with heavy metals and other noxious pollutants to cause 15,000 premature deaths annually in the US alone, not to talk of thousands of coal miners that perish in accidents each year.

Over the period, man has successfully covered the distance between the earth and space, and is still striving to make earth a better place to live. The demand for fresh energy sources is growing thick and fast, to which Nuclear power proves only resolve. Until now, nuclear power had been simply looked down upon, as it is the most sensitive source of energy that if messed up with could eradicate the life from entire globe within no time.

As the stakes are high...

The climate change around the world is unique because the stakes are enormously high. Here we are talking about what kind of world we leave for future generations, and whether we can avoid environmental impacts that could potentially be catastrophic.

We have just started to appreciate the extent of the environmental problems created by the energy extravagances of wealthy industrial countries.

• In Europe forests are dying from acid rain laden with sulfur and nitrogen oxides from burning coal.

• Marine and bird life are blighted by innumerable accidental and intentional oil spills.

• Urban populations are often smothered in a haze of unhealthy smog.

• The convenience for some to travel by car poses a life threat to others with respiratory diseases.

However, it is a struggle in which we must succeed, and to do so we face the political challenge of finding solutions that can receive the backing of many of the people who are currently on the side of the past.

The world cannot help to reduce CO2 emissions and in the times to come, will emit more than it does now. Earth will warm, the polar caps will melt, the seas will rise and the continents will shrink besides burning hydrocarbons is a luxury that a planet with 6 billion energy-hungry souls can’t afford long enough. Global warming is coming and we have to do something to stop it. So what do we do?

There’s only one sane, practical alternative: nuclear power. I think the problem of climate change can be solved only through the development or better application of technology and in this regard nuclear energy is our ‘magic bullet’ for getting us off our dependence on oil and other non-renewable fossil fuels. I’m all for it and what about you?