Answer to Question 1
Coal plants are especially burdensome to health and property, as was discussed in
earlier chapters. Compared to this, nuclear energy causes many fewer deaths. However, the
possibility of catastrophe is much greater for nuclear plants than for fossil fuels, though the
probability of such a catastrophe is very low. (However, occasionally hundreds of people
are killed in fossil fuel plants. An aboveground gas storage tank in Cleveland started
leaking, and led to a gas explosion that killed 130 people and leveled about a square mile of
the east side of the city.)
It should be noted that reactors could be a terrorist target. It is unlikely that coal-fired plants
would be targeted, but as the above story tells us, gas storage could be a target.
Answer to Question 2
The quality of life is sustained by the ecosystems of the planet and the production
of raw materials. When the ecosystems and amounts of raw materials are finite, each person
has access to less and less. This has been the case for agricultural production in Africa. It
has grown, but by less than the population increase. Each African today has a smaller share
of agricultural production than was the case 20 years ago.
Asimov also used the toilet analogy. One person, one toiletno problem. When more than
one person needs a toilet, problems can arise. The toilet is a metaphor for the finiteness of
Earth.
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