The UK government along with governments in Europe and the U.S are at last becoming very concerned about our increasing dependence on unreliable and unfriendly energy suppliers. In many countries efforts are underway to convince the public that nuclear is the way ahead. This is understandable as it is estimated that by 2030 Europe as a whole will rely on imported gas for 82% of its supplies and oil for 93%.
In the UK, Alistair Darling made a statement to the commons that said, “The UK is also becoming increasingly dependent on imported oil and gas at a time when global demand is accelerating… With a third of our current electricity generation capacity due to close in the next 20 years, there is also a pressing need for investment in new low carbon sources…”
Unfortunately, even if nuclear is a good option we don’t yet have a way to power farming by nuclear, so if there was a severe reduction in oil and gas flowing to Europe and the U.S, the food production and distribution system would fail.