The standard of living (gross national product per capita) that can be developec and maintained in a country is closely tied to the amount of energy per capita i consumes. With most of the population expansion of the world taking place in the third-world, these developing and under-developed nations will attempt to increas< their standard of living through the next decade and well into the next century. Thi: will be done mostly by the combustion of fossil fuels, which will add to the emission: and the greenhouse effect. Thus, there are two conflicting needs in the work energy economy: (1) the energy needs of expanding populations seeking a bettei standard of living, which could create an upward trend in fossil fuel combustion am CO2 emissions; and (2) the need to limit global warming, which would require < downward trend in fossil fuel combustion and CO2 emissions. It is first necessary tc calculate the shortfall in energy supply that occurs because of these two factors tha drive the world energy economy in two different directions, which is the main theme of this paper. This paper goes somewhat beyond this and investigates the choices tc make up this shortfall in energy supply. The alternative energies considered here include terrestrial solar photovoltaics, nuclear fission, fusion, and solar powei satellites. The Greenhouse Effect For approximately the past 200 years, the economic development of the industrialized nations has been fueled by increasing amounts of fossil energy sources. In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the possible environmental effects of the emission of carbon dioxide resulting from fossil fuel combustion. The
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==