peaceful production becomes the alternative for their future activities. Beside the environmental research the space research is one of the most promising activity for the highly educated and motivated scientists and engineers working in the military research sector. Such a long term program like the Space Solar Power Program ensures employment and profit over a long period. As the former East-West conflict changes into an East-West cooperation the North-South conflict between the developed countries in the northern hemisphere and the poor countries in the southern hemisphere will get much more interest in the political arena of the world. The growing problems in the developed countries due to immigration and refugees force them to deliver much more help (political and financial) to the undeveloped countries in order to give them more possibilities for the solution of their problems within their countries. As most problems arise from the low standard of living in these countries one promising possibility of the developed countries and the Space Solar Power Program is to create jobs with the growing industry on the basis of the delivered electrical power and for the personnel maintaining the power receiving stations in the undeveloped countries. Employment increases the standard of living in these countries and protects them from emigration. As most of the developed countries have no great resources for energy production (oil, coal) they depend on the continuous supply. The oil crisis during the seventies showed, that this dependence can generate problems, if the delivering countries use the energy sources for political and economic pressure. In order to overcome such problems in the future, the Space Solar Power Program can prevent such a dependence and can therefore get great support by the governments of the developed countries. In spite of the fact, that we don't know how long the energy demand of the Earth can be satisfied by the traditional energy sources (oil, gas, coal etc.), we know, that the total amount of these materials is limited on Earth. Most of these raw materials can also be used for very useful purposes, like the chemical industry producing plastics. Any effort to use the solar energy and to protect the raw materials will be supported by the public and the governments as long as the price for the energy will not change. In addition the price of the raw material will rise as soon as the continuous supply will not be secured, leading to a higher price for the energy produced from it (section 4.2.3). 4.2.2 Environmental and Safety The actual way to produce energy has to be changed for the future due to the environmental problems which are connected with the production of carbon dioxide or nuclear waste. The general public directs much more interest on the way of energy production. The development of the ozone hole in Antarctica, the Greenhouse Effect, and the Chernobyl accident lead to a much stronger environmental consciousness of the people. Governments and the industry in the developed countries have to intensify their environmental efforts and have to look for new and clean energy sources. As the clean energy sources on the Earth are limited (Chapter 2), solar energy beamed down from space is a very promising alternative which will be well supported by the general public as soon as the environmental safety is demonstrated. The Chernobyl accident showed the possible risks of energy production, especially if nuclear power is used. The safety standard of all nuclear power plants had to be increased since then and caused higher costs for the energy production (section 4.2.3). The need of safe ways to produce large amounts of energy is one system driver for the development of all alternative energy sources. Due to the limited number of other safe energy sources the Space Solar Power Program will profit from any higher safety standard compared to other energy sources. The growth of the world population causes a higher demand for food and energy. Many people in the less developed countries cut the trees and the rain forest in order to get wood for energy production and land for agriculture in spite of the destruction of the oxygen production and of the soil erosion. As the large rain forests are located in the undeveloped countries of the equatorial region of the Earth, the developed countries have to provide alternative clean energy sources in order to protect the rain forest and to protect the continues oxygen production for the whole world. Even if there are other energy sources available (fusion) there may be some places on Earth that are difficult to reach by cables or by coal/oil supply (Antarctica). In that case, beaming of energy is also the cleaner solution for power supply and the knowledge of all environmental effects might become important
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