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Article Excerpt
Science and technology (S&T) has brought economic growth and contributed to enhancing living standards. In recent years, S&T has progressed very rapidly and brought tremendous benefits to our lives. For example, the development of transportation has dramatically extended the range of human activities, genome research makes personalized medicine possible, and the advancement of information and communications technology (ICT) has minimized time and distance in communications.
However, S&T brings not only these lights but also shadows. Advances in S&T have led to serious problems for humanity, such as climate change, ethical concerns in the biosciences, nuclear proliferation, and privacy and security issues in ICT. Therefore, it is essential to control the negative aspects on the one hand and develop the positive factors on the other.
In this context, we need appropriate midterm strategies to advance two aims: economic growth and sustainability for our planet. S&T must help make economic growth compatible with sustainability, and one current challenge is to develop sources of alternative energy for transportation.
The downside of fossil fuels
In the 20th century, many advanced countries relied on fossil fuels such as coal and oil for generating energy. These energy resources have brought great benefits for large-scale economic activities, mass production, and global transportation. However, fossil fuels have a downside for humankind. Consumption of oil is responsible for emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, climate change, and air pollution. And because oil is a limited resource, it is subject to great increases in price. Therefore, Japan and the world face a daunting array of energy-related challenges.
In view of the expected increase in global energy needs and of environmental concerns, we need to make rapid progress in energy efficiency and further develop a broad range of clean alternative energy sources to reduce emissions and solve climate change problems.
Many developed countries have been making concentrated efforts to develop alternative energy...
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