LOS ANGELES, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Solar and wind will become Earth's dominant contributor of energy due to continuous research and development of alternative energy, a Nobel-prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.
Total oil and natural gas production, which today provides about 60 percent of global energy consumption, is expected to peak about 10 to 30 years from now, followed by a rapid decline, said Walter Kohn, Ph.D., who is with the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"These trends have created two unprecedented global challenges," said Kohn who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. "One is the threatened global shortage of acceptable energy. The other is the unacceptable, imminent danger of global warming and its consequences."
Kohn noted that these challenges require a variety of responses. "The most obvious is continuing scientific and technical progress providing abundant and affordable alternative energies, safe, clean and carbon-free," he said at a special symposium at the American Chemical Society's 240th National Meeting in Boston.
Because the challenges are global in nature, the scientific and technical work should enjoy a maximum of international cooperation, which fortunately is beginning to evolve, he said.
The global photovoltaic energy production increased by a factor of about 90 and wind energy by a factor of about 10 over the last decade.
