ENVIRONMENTAL groups are setting back the fight against global warming with misguided and irrational objections to nuclear power, according to Britain’s leading thinker about the future.

Climate change will be the greatest of many significant challenges for humanity over the next century, and every tool available, including nuclear energy, will be needed to prevent it wrecking the planet, James Martin told The Times.

While the anti-nuclear campaign is well-intentioned, it fundamentally misunderstands the safety of the latest generation of reactors and threatens to hold back a technology that could be critical to the world’s future, he said.

The criticism of groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth by Dr Martin, a computer scientist and physicist, will be keenly felt as he is himself a prominent green who has spent much of his large IT and publishing fortune on research into global warming and environmental science.

Last year, he donated £60 million to the University of Oxford to found the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilisation, the first school of its kind dedicated to studying problems of the future such as climate change and emerging technologies.

Though nuclear power generates very low carbon emissions, most green lobby groups are opposed to it because of the problem of disposing of waste that remains radioactive for thousands of years, and the risks of an accident.

In The Meaning of the 21st Century, his new book published today, he names climate change as the greatest challenge currently facing humanity, and openly endorses nuclear power as part of the solution.

The “fourth-generation” nuclear plants that could be built now are profoundly different from older designs, with safety features that make meltdown impossible, low waste output, and fuel that is not suitable for bombs, Dr Martin said.

He is keen on the pebble bed reactor, an experimental South African and Chinese design, in which the fuel is incapable of melting. A prototype has been built in Beijing. “With the pebble bed reactor, the fuel is easily disposed of, and it can be divorced absolutely from the bomb industry,” he said.

Green critics of nuclear power, he said, are delaying adoption of this technology.

“I think they are misguided. South Africa would have had a pebble bed reactor running by now if it hadn’t been for Greenpeace.”

His book sets out a number of grand challenges for the next 100 years. While the greatest of these is global warming, he also lists water shortages, which will lead to wars, the loss of global biodiversity, terrorism, diseases such as pandemic flu and HIV/Aids, and the emergence of biotechnology and artificial intelligence that could change the fundamental nature of humanity.

Nathan Argent, a Greenpeace spokesman, said: “While the fourth generation of reactors produce less waste by volume, they produce more of the most radioactive and long-lived waste, and there is still no safe way of dealing with this. We argue that the better way to tackle climate change is to decentralise power generation and make it more efficient.”

CHALLENGES FOR 21ST CENTURY

The environment: Global warming threatens to wreck the planet. Water is being used unsustainably and is running out. Animal and plant species are being wiped out.

War and terrorism: Weapons of mass destruction make it possible for humanity to wipe itself out. Terrorists are becoming more likely to gain access to these weapons. Both the means and causes of war need to be addressed, with measures to tackle nuclear proliferation, poverty and environmental inequality, especially access to water.

Transhumanism and the singularity: Genetic engineering, robotic implants and cognitive enhancement drugs will enable the transformation of the human species. Computer intelligence will improve to reach a “singularity” where it matches that of humans.

Wealth and lifestyle: Overall wealth should increase dramatically beyond inflation. There will be more leisure for more people, with opportunities for enhancing happiness. Population, though, will grow to 8.9 billion, and it will not be possible for all these people to enjoy sophisticated lifestyles.

Creativity and wisdom: Few people fulfil their creative potential. The pursuit of wealth and knowledge is often conducted without reflection on what this means for the future. “Science and technology are accelerating furiously, but wisdom is not,” Dr Martin writes.

• The Meaning of 21st Century: A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future is published by Transworld, price £20

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