The power struggle

Lemma 1:
Fossil fuels are a finite resource.

Lemma 2:
The global population is consuming fossil fuels at a non-zero rate.

Conclusion:
Fossil fuels will be exhausted.

The next cheap energy source is no longer found in breaking chemical bonds, but to annihilate matter itself. Nuclear fission is already used as a power generation method.

Unfortunately, nuclear power has irreversibly scarred huge tracts of the population through the actions of the United States in August 1945. Many vowed that nuclear power should never ever be used again. “Many” does not necessarily mean “all”, and the few power wielders decided that yes, nuclear power will continue to be in use. The thermonuclear bomb was thus developed.

The stigma associated with nuclear fission is so great that it is not uncommon for populations to object to nuclear research, even if for power generation. However, oddly enough, this stigma is sometimes severely minimised if nuclear research is conducted in one’s own country for use of peaceful power generation, and possibly for “protection of our way of life”.

To add more spice to the issue, the existing nuclear powers are doing their best to prevent other states from acquiring nuclear power. Not only are there efforts to actively deter nuclear pursuers from developing such “dangerous” technologies, but the dangers of nuclear power is continuously trumped up to convince the global population that countries developing nuclear technologies are a threat to global stability.

That fact that stability can be threatened implies that it is not stable, but simply meta-stable. In the current landscape, the nuclear powers are at the top. If the landscape changes and global politics enter a new meta-stable state, the current powers might no longer be at the top, hence their fear of change.

Interesting things will happen when fossil fuels are exhausted. With a large majority of the global population without access to mass-energy conversion technologies, nuclear states might hold large proportions of power, in both senses of the word.




The world is a bitch. We are little minions.
Life sucks.



Many of the statements made here are debatable issues in themselves. If you wish to, please criticise with rationality and minimal rudeness.