The catch-22 situation - Jevon's paradox

In support of the argument that the only solution for the future is cooperation and sharing of resources and research into new sources of energy, there's a very interesting article published by The Oil Drum, in which the author, Ugo Bardi, compares two very different approaches to the power resource dilemma: Italy, where energy generated from nuclear plants was banned by law 20 years ago and France, where 80% of the country's energy needs are derived from it.

He supplies some highly revealing comparative figures on the relevant costs of energies in both countries and concludes that, even if Italy were now to reverse their political decision of two decades ago and reinvest in nuclear power, it would be at a huge cost and not guaranteed to succeed in time. Furthermore, if other countries were also to follow the same pattern they'd drain world reserves of uranium and create a shortage that required further investment in alternative technologies.

He comments that as a direct consequence of investing in nuclear power and retaining relatively low prices for electricity, France's inhabitants have become wasteful. They consume almost double the amount of electricity in comparison to neighbouring Italy. But there's no going back. No government is successful when it raises the price of energy. Through its nuclear energy programme France has enabled its citizens to be profligate and created a catch twenty-two situation.