9.1 Introduction

The current practice of extracting energy and petrochemicals from fossil carbon is not sustainable. Fossil carbon use generates high emissions of CO ₂ that are already significantly increasing atmospheric CO ₂ levels, and will contribute to global warming with consequent real impact on climate change. Most of the industrially developed countries are not selfsufficient in the cleaner forms of fossil carbon such as gas and oil. The mining of coal is environmentally offensive, and its use contributes to the buildup of atmospheric CO ₂ more than any other fossil carbon source. The increasing gap between demand for fossil carbon for both strategic raw materials and energy, and domestic supply has led to greater reliance on foreign sources of fossil carbon, in particular the politically unstable Middle East, and has profound implications for global foreign policy. The trend to explore other global regions as additional sources of oil and gas focuses on areas that are climatically less hospitable (e.g., North Sea, Alaska, Siberia, off-shore South America), are, in some cases, more environmentally fragile, are less well understood, and may require new and untried recovery technologies.

A sustainable and environmentally benign approach to supplying society s needs for energy and materials is to harness alternative natural resources such as solar, wind and geothermal. Solar energy combined with atmospheric carbon dioxide is the basis of plant life and, ultimately, all life. The current rapid development of biotechnology will enable transformation of atmospheric...