Atom's energy can keep the world powered and the Nature calm

Humanity would never wish to face calamities, at the same time it won't choose to live in darkness either. But, I am afraid we are well on our way to one of these.

- J. Devaprakash

When Thomas Alva Edison launched the world's first public electricity generation unit in 1882 he would not have thought that he was actually setting a stage for transforming the planet into a most modern one. Nearly 14 decades after, today, human life on earth is so much interlaced with electricity. We need it for everything: for light, for commutation, for communication, for cooking, for comfort, and for several other things. Eventually, consumption of electricity has soared substantially ever since humanity began to enjoy its fruits.

With myriad number of electricity plants that have mushroomed all across the world, the present global power generation capacity has manifolded to over 25,000 Terra Watt-hour. According to the Washington Post, in 2012 itself over 62000 power plants were in service in this universe. In an average, the 7.7 billion people on earth consume a whooping 300 billion units (KWh) in just a day. But still hunger for energy is mounting rapidly. And to meet this ever-growing energy demand countries are building more and more power plants.

The same electricity which revolutionized the world is leading us to catastrophe now. Electricity which is often synonymised with light and brightness is presently paralleled with global warming and climate change. Electricity is not a problem as such but the way it is produced is actually. Among several methods, burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas is the dominant way in the energy world. Even the first public power plant “Edison Electric Light Station was a coal-fired unit. Supposedly, thermal power plant was considered as easiest technology and it was believed that the world had plenty of fossil fuel.

How long the fossil fuels can last?