The recent passage of the destructive tropical storm Delta has presented us with a brief outline of what a modern society devoid of electrical energy would be like. Without the continued contribution of said energy, and within
barely a month, we would have regressed two hundred years or more in every way. Everything that has been achieved to this day and that shapes the society in which we live, with its advantages and disadvantages, would disappear without remedy, reducing us to a mere state of very primitive survival.
It is towards that Dantean possibility that we are heading at forced marches if we continue the current rate of consumption - or rather waste - of energy in any of its variants, but always making use of fossil fuels. This is not a catastrophic message but a premonition based on in-depth environmental studies. That is, at least, the idea held by the English scientist James Lovelock, author of the
Gaia hypothesis, according to which the Earth and all its living matter constitute a system that has been self-regulating for the last three billion years. The scientist adds that continually attacking this system would end up breaking the balance and bring with it the terrible prospect of mass extinctions, including Humanity.
In the opinion of Professor Lovelock, and here controversies may arise, the only realistic way to avoid global warming is the rational and extensive use of nuclear energy, as the least polluting of all. Global warming is a threatening reality in the medium to long term and nuclear technology is far from perfect; thus, the controversy is served. In any case, what many experts seem to agree on is that, either we take our foot off the accelerator, or we are going to take a big hit.
J. Lavín
Jesús José Lavin Alonso
