According to the Scientific American, “This July is set to be the hottest month ever recorded on Earth—and likely the hottest in about 120,000 years.” While this heat is not too out of the ordinary for those near me in Sacramento, as we have seen hotter temperatures, it is certainly troublesome. As reported by PBS, “More than 100 people have died in heat waves in the United States and India so far this summer.”

This information makes me believe that despite the numerous technological advancements in cooling technology, and the steadily increasing global temperature, we as a species are not acquainted with these rising temperatures. This is why I think climate change is perhaps the most critical problem of this century. Since this problem has little sign of lessening, we are taking the wrong path to the solution. Rather than focusing on what a person can do, like buying an electric car, it is more important to focus on what nations can do, primarily in changing their source of power. I am not referring to wind turbines or solar panels but nuclear energy. 

Currently, underdeveloped countries produce extreme amounts of greenhouse gasses, and this is due to coal and wood power being cheaper than green energy. Some think that the solution to this is to put this green energy in third-world nations, but this is expensive, and green energy does not produce much.

This is where nuclear energy is useful; According to energy.gov, on average, one nuclear power plant is equivalent to about 431 wind turbines. Despite this, some claim that nuclear energy is dangerous and point to catastrophes such as Chernobyl. The problem that I find in their argument is that Chernobyl was not adhering to the safety standards at the time. Plus, would it really be more dangerous than all of the greenhouse emissions produced by coal plants? So, unless you want oranges to be grown in Alaska anytime soon, I think that nuclear energy will prevent future record-breaking temperatures.