How to save the planet
Some helpful advice
The Fleming Centenary Lecture: Abridged version 1 July 2004, UCL
Figure 1 John Tyndall
(© The Royal Institution)


The prospects for renewables providing
a good part of the answer are excellent.
The nuclear option does not seem to be
a practical answer to the totality of the
world energy problem for this century.
On the other hand, it would be wrong for
the UK to diminish the reliance we place
on nuclear. We should replace the aging
Magnox stations with modern, much
more efficient, and even safer, reactors;
governments worry that this would be a
vote-loser. They just might be wrong. A
recent MORI poll on this issue is rather
revealing (see Table 1).
The engineers – the present generation
and those to come – will work with
passion to save the planet.