Introduction.

In talking to my modern children, who are quite socially responsible, of 20+ years of age, and who are well aware of the broader current energy and climate issues, I felt a need to put forward a simplified view of the fundamentals. Their viewpoint often seemed to me to be fragmentary, and too often influenced by the popular medias pseudo-science and drama, usually much too short on fact.

This paper is addressed to these young people who soon will come to be responsible for running this country.

I have endeavoured to present a broad overview of these complicated issues, in a non-technical, hopefully readable way, stressing the interactions between the physics, the technology and the engineering, and the all-important impact of relevant social questions upon them.

I present nothing new here. All data has been readily collected by sifting through the mass of information freely available on the Internet.

The Author.

A graduate in Electrical Engineering from UNSW 1960, my early years were as a communications engineer in what was the PMG, now Telstra Australia, and as an electronic circuit design engineer with Ericsson Australia. This was followed by many years as a project manager on large telephone installation contracts in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Korea, finishing as Vice
President Export for Ericsson Australia in 2000, a position necessitating extensive travel throughout much of Asia and the Pacific.  Since retirement, and with the availability of time, I have pursued many avenues of learning in climate related fields, including a summer school at the University of Cambridge.