A Convenient Truth.

A proven technological solution to global warming exists, and it has been known in detail to nuclear physicists since the 1930's.

As of 2004, this technology was beginning to be exploited by the Chinese, as reported in this article, published by Wired Magazine in Sept., 2004, which explains the history and features of the "pebble-bed" nuclear reactor.

Pebble-bed nuclear reactors are superior to water-cooled nuclear reactors, because the pebble-bed design is melt-down proof and does not require an expensive, dangerous containment vessel to prevent releases of radioactive steam. Technical aspects of the way uranium fuel is used in pebble-bed reactors obviate the nuclear waste disposal problems that are associated with uranium rods in water-cooled reactors.

In addition, pebble-bed nuclear reactors heat helium to generate electricity. Helium can be made very hot safely, so pebble-bed nuclear reactors can be used to cogenerate hydrogen gas, for which very high temperatures are required, on a commercially feasible scale.

In the 1950's the U.S. Navy implemented nuclear powered submarines using water cooled reactors, and the pebble-bed design was all but forgotten by the nuclear industry and the public. A crash program to replace fossil-fuel-fired electricity plants could, practically speaking, begin tomorrow, as could a crash program to replace gasoline-powered cars with hydrogen-powered cars (whose exhaust consists of water vapor).

All that stand in the way are: (a) the nuclear industry, (b) the oil industry, (c) the coal industry, (d) the natural gas industry, (e) the ethanol industry, and (f) the automobile industry.