For more than 100 years, fossil fuels have provided mankind with a convenient source of energy.

Yet the world now has good reasons to seek alternatives to fossil fuels for energy production:

• Fossil fuel power plants emit greenhouse gases, believed to be the driving force of global warming. 
• Fossil fuel power plant pollutants are closely linked to respiratory illness.
• Fossil fuels are a finite resource, and should ultimately be used for highest and best use, such as petroleum-based components for plastics and medicines.

While renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro and geothermal will play a growing role in producing electricity, nuclear energy is the only non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source that can effectively replace fossil fuels and meet growing demand.

Benefits of harnessing nuclear power to meet and secure Canada’s growing energy needs include high output, clean electricity generation and an exemplary safety record.

Science shows nuclear power to be an environmentally sound and safe choice. In fact, nuclear energy is already North America’s largest non-greenhouse gas-emitting power source.

Confronted with the reality of climate change, prominent environmentalists are embracing nuclear energy. Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalogue, believes nuclear energy will help increase energy efficiency and decarbonize energy production.

According to Brand, we must also pursue everything from energy conservation to renewables. "But add them all up," he says, "and it’s still only a fraction of enough. The only technology ready to fill the gap and stop the carbon dioxide loading of the atmosphere is nuclear power. The (nuclear energy) industry is mature, with a half-century of experience and ever improved engineering behind it."

Another prominent environmentalist, James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis that sees the world as a self-regulating organism, also supports nuclear energy as a solution to climate change.

"Opposition to nuclear energy is based on irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the Green lobbies and the media," says Brand. "These fears are unjustified, and nuclear energy from its start in 1952 has proved to be the safest of all energy sources."

The late Hugh Montefiore, former Anglican Bishop of Birmingham, left Friends of the Earth due to his firm support of nuclear energy.

"I believe that we have a duty to play our full part in safeguarding the future of our planet," says Montefiore, "and I have been a committed environmentalist for many years. It is because of this commitment and the graveness of the consequences of global warming for the planet that I have now come to the conclusion that the solution is to make more use of nuclear energy."

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