Energy and education

To understand the importance for school teachers to have adequate concepts of world-wide energy situation, the author presents fundamental information: world population projection, the history of energy amount consumed by mankind, the trend and changes of energy consumption rate for different district, estimation of reserved energy resources on the earth, global warming and greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide emissions caused by fossil fuel consumption, and the prospect of renewable energies such as wind, solar, waste, and biomass energy. The author concludes that we inevitably employ nuclear power as a practicable energy source without causing climate change and for this reason there is the need for radiation and radioactivity education in school. Ethical problems of scientists and engineers are also mentioned. (S. Ohno)