Something else to think about on energy use...

Per capita CO2 production :

USA : 8.2 tonnes
China : 1.8 tonnes

Just thought it might add a little perspective.

The 1.3 billion people in China have had an energy consumption increase in the last five years equal to the total energy consumption of the 0.127 billion people in Japan over the last five years. I make that a 1.9% year on year increase. How does that compare to the USA's energy consumption increase over the same period?

You're right about nuclear however - we need to be researching it for better safety and efficiency, and building more plants - now.

Interestingly, the world's 5 largest power stations are all zero emissions. The conflict of the ecological impact of massive hydro projects like the Five Gorges with the net benefit w.r.t. carbon emissions is something that we need to discuss, globally, and responsibly. Ditto the building of new zero emissions facilities and the global challenge of producing large amounts of clean energy in the medium to long term. Burning stuff just isn't going to work beyond the short term - anything that increase fossil fuel usage is short sighted.

Doug