...so we need to keep burning coal to stave off an Ice Age seems to be the implication. Trouble is millions of people aren't coping with heat and drought abound now. 2023 was a hot year globally and southern Australian cities had a record summer. Some farmers couldn't justify watering heat damaged crops which were left to die.

If a cosmological cooling trend is discernible by 2050 that will be compounded by fossil fuel depletion. Those who can afford them will be driving EVs since there will be no petrol. More reason to find alternatives to fossil fuels sooner rather than later.

And still we continue to churn out more and more homo sapiens.
8 plus billion and increasing.
The cause of ALL our problems.

All the more reason why Australia needs to start generating power from MSR Thorium reactors which will produce cheaper electricity than anything else that will be available by then.

David

I agree with Ateday.

I do support the reduction in and eventual elimination of the use of fossil fuels, but only for the correct reasons, not in order to induce hysteria for political ends.

Neither electrical vehicles nor nuclear reactors are the answer, because they both are complex to produce, requiring massive international cooperation and therefore depend on keeping human population in the billions - but do prove me wrong on that: if they and all their components and know-how can be produced locally without too much sophistication, then I do support them.

Conventional light water reactors take years to build and cost billions! The rare as platinum uranium needs costly enrichment.

SMRs however, can be mass produced and dozens built in a factory setting annually!

The problem with either is the pressure required to keep super-heated steam as a liquid coolant.

MSR thorium, on the other hand, operates at ambient air pressure. Which reduces the build cost substantially. The metal thorium needs no enrichment, just two weeks in the blanket of a nuclear reactor to convert non fissile thorium into fissile U233. Making it the cheapest source of power!

Moreover, it is also carbon free. The fact that they are small and modular means they can be sited close to the consumer. Ending the need for miles of wire! And the majority of transmission and distribution losses, which in total today, average around 75% combined.

We entered a waning phase or cool/mini-ice age period in the late 1970s. This also saw a period of record heat waves and hottest days on record.

Australian families produce 1.3 children per couple. So, we need migration to increase the population. It's not us that are breeding like rabbits, but Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Perfected, Chinese made thorium reactors are for sale off the shelf at prices we could come close to with Australian made.

The Australin government needs to remove the self-imposed embargo on nuclear power and allow co-ops and councils to buy ready to generate, Chinese MSR thorium.

The free market is built on healthy competition not captive markets/price gouging foreigners charging whatever the market can bear.
Alan B.

Could come close to, should read, couldn't come close to.
Alan.