| Soleron said: The best and only good way to tackle climate change is to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels for power stations and automobiles. This means fusion power, combined with hydrogen fuel cells for transport. These technologies are very cheap to develop compared to solutions that involve geoenfginnering or reorganising our economy, and will do just as much to reduce poverty and improve the economy as anything else you could spend the money on. So, let's do that and get both at the same time. But this requires supporting basic research with government money, which apparently governments are allergic to (The US withdrew ITER funding last I heard). It's a shame because if we ever developed a fusion reactor or viable fuel cell then the profits would be very high, and if the government involved only got a tiny percentage back then it would repay development costs. |
About government science funding...
I've often had problems with the UK science funding.
However.
The latest UK science budget plans for 2009 to 2011 will be increased to £4,000,000,000. This will be a budget that allows world class scientific research facilities. It is a step in the right direction for us as our economy is shifting to rely on technology and science. For every £1 the government spends on science, it will eventually lead to £7 (on average in recent times) when the technology has been implemented or sold. Science is a very wise investment. I'm very happy that the government has realised this, and that has lead to increased spending, which will be beneficial in the long run.
I think the government is coming round to the idea that spending money on sciences like nuclear fusion and hydrogen fuel cells is a wise investment as they will be the technology of the future.
Long story short, there is light at the end of the tunnel imo 
.
