October 15, 2014

Lockheed Martin announced that it has made a fusion-related technological breakthrough. It would use deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen found in the ocean, to generate nearly 10 million times more energy that the same amount of fossil fuels. There would be no radioactive waste.

At first glance this would appear to be the answer to the world’s energy needs. However, given the disastrous state of the environment due to mankind’s amazing technological progress, extreme caution is in order.

Drawbacks To Fusion Of Hydrogen

1) It reduces the amount of hydrogen on our planet by converting it into helium. Less hydrogen means a corresponding irreversible reduction in the amount of water, something the Earth does not naturally do. Over time, it would give a whole new meaning to the definition of drought.

2) In fusion, a percentage of matter is actually destroyed and converted into energy. The Earth does not have a natural mechanism to reduce its mass, therefore fusion is unnatural.

3) Fusion would make fossil fuels and fission obsolete for generating electricity. Energy-producing countries and multinationals would lose their source of revenue; that would wreak havoc with the stock and bond markets and unleash a global depression of cataclysmic proportions.  To prevent this, a captive market would have to be created to give energy investors the means to preserve their wealth. This implies that someone or something would have to have the power to perpetually prevent energy consumers worldwide from using fusion without paying current energy producers. Most countries have sovereign access to the sea, which happens to be the largest source of hydrogen on the planet; they should be expected to argue that the hydrogen in the ocean is free and to fiercely resist any attempts to force them to pay third parties for its use.

4) If the recent Russia-China 30-year energy agreement is an indication of what fuels they expect to be used over that period of time, large-scale civilian use of fusion is at least 30 years away. That means there’s time for non-fusion natural alternatives to be introduced and implemented.

5) There must be a reason why fusion does not naturally occur on earth.