An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary in 2006 by Davis Guggenheim about Al Gores attempt at educating the population about global warming

(IMDb), made climate change a major issue for America. Climate change is the drastic change of the earths temperature, which, if large enough, can cause devastating damage to life throughout the planet. The pressing problem with climate change is the extreme weather that will devastate cities, increase extinction rates of species on all seven continents, and the melting of the ice caps that will produce massive sea level rise. The cause of climate change is the greenhouse effect, which is when released chemicals and water vapor that enters our earths atmosphere and decreases the amount of heat that is released into space. The main greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and many others. Carbon dioxide, the largest contributor of the greenhouse gasses, has doubled in our atmosphere over the past 100 years, leading to an increase of average temperature by 6% this past decade (Glikson). 95% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have come from fossil fuel combustion, with 40% of that being electricity production. In 2008, 1.6 trillion tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere from electricity production (Epa). Research and development of alternative energies has drastically increased over the past decade in the hopes of combatting global climate change. Some of the more popular alternative energies include solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and nuclear fission. All of which are attempts at replacing the use of fossil fuels that is used as a

primary source of electricity. There are some major problems for each of the alternative forms of energy. Solar, wind, hydroelectric and geothermal all have geographical prerequisites, which makes it difficult to implement nationwide, plus other limiting factors that do not allow them to be permanent replacements for fossil fuels. Nuclear fission is currently one of the only sources of alternative energy that is actually viable, with its ability to produce plentiful electricity, and be built almost anywhere within the country. The biggest problem with fission is the limited amount of room to store their highly radioactive waste, and the inherent danger of disasters e.g. Chernobyl, Ukraine where a nuclear meltdown caused one of the biggest manmade disaster, causing massive damage, and spreading radiation over large swaths of land (Chernobyl Accident). Nuclear fusion is a different kind of nuclear reaction, where nuclear fission splits larger atoms into smaller elements. Nuclear fusion is when smaller atoms are combined to make a heavier element, creating a large amount of energy. The best example of a nuclear fusion is our sun. Since the nuclear force that attracts protons and neutrons is so strong, it is required to heat the fuel to incredibly large temperatures and put under immense pressure. The sun can achieve highly efficient fusion with its core burning at 28.3 million F and 289 trillion Atm (Glenn). The closest reaction that we have made on earth to simulate the conditions of the sun is a thermonuclear weapon. The detonation

of a fission bomb actually creates the heat and pressure, which then causes the fusion fuel to ignite. The fear of radiation is quite well managed with nuclear fission reactors. Fission plants create highly radioactive fuel rods which take thousands of years to become inert. It is predicted that if U.S. follows through with its nuclear fission plans, within the next 10 years, we will fill Yucca Mountain. Yucca Mountain is the U.S. primary destination for the storage of spent fuel rods for their nuclear reactors. The facility is 328 feet under a mountain, which is about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. Nuclear fusion produces radioactive waste that has a significantly smaller half-life, only about 50 years, compared to the thousands of spent fission rods. NIF (National Ignition Facility) is the only reactor to create an efficient fusion reaction. The reactors uses driver lasers to create 192, 500 terawatt laser flashes that converge on a small spherical pellet, which contains a few milligrams of fusion fuel. The high energy laser pulse converge on the pellet which heats the surface and turns it into plasma, the heat then creates more pressure, collapsing the pellet smaller and smaller until ignition is achieved, creating a nuclear fission reaction By 2050, oil supplies will run out, 2060 the gas supply will run dry, and 2090 coal will be depleted (Ecotricity). Helium-3, the main fuel for nuclear reactors, can be synthesized from sea water, making the fuel incredibly abundant.

Work Cited An Inconvenient Truth. IMDb. Web. 28 Feb. 2014.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497116/ Glikson, Andrew. As emissions rise, we may be heading for an ice-free planet. The Conversation. 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. http://theconversation.edu.au/asemissions-rise-we-may-be-heading-for-an-ice-free-planet-4893 Overview of Greenhouse Gases. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html Chernobyl Accident 1986. World Nuclear Association. Feb. 2014, Web. 28 Feb. 2014. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/ChernobylAccident/
Elert, Glenn. Pressure at the Center of the Sun. The Physics Factbook. Web. 23. Feb. 2014. http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1997/MarinaTreybick.shtml The End of Fossil Fuels. Ecotricity. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/our-greenenergy/energy-independence/the-end-of-fossil-fuels