I N T R O D U C T I O N PEACE AND WAR WEALTH AND POVERTY PROGRESS AND SETBACKS HISTORY HAS BROUGHT HUGE SWINGS IN THE HUMAN CONDITION AND WITH EVERY CHOICE PEOPLE MAKE THERE IS THE POTENTIAL TO MOVE FORWARD OR STEP BACKWARD AT THE CORE OF THIS CONTINUAL STRUGGLE HAS BEEN THE QUEST FOR ENERGY ENERGY GAVE HUMANS POWER AND MOTIVATED THEM TO DO GREAT THINGS WITH BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS WITHOUT ENERGY PEOPLE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DRIVE CARS OPERATE COMPUTERS OR POWER FACTORIES WARS ARE FOUGHT TRYING TO DOMINATE SOURCES OF ENERGY FORTUNES ARE MADE AND LOST DEPENDING ON HOW THAT ENERGY IS MANAGED THE LAWS OF PHYSICS STATE THAT ENERGY CANNOT BE CREATED OR DESTROYED THAT IS TRUE BUT ENERGY CAN BE HARNESSED AND DIRECTED IT CAN BE WASTED OR IT CAN BE COAXED INTO EFFICIENCY CIVILIZATIONS AND TECHNOLOGIES HAVE LEAPED FORWARD AND SOMETIMES BACKWARD AS HUMANS HAVE TAPPED INTO EARTH’S SOURCES OF ENERGY The coal we use today took millions of years to form 4
Coal could be called the granddaddy of the fossil fuels Societies the world over have used it for thousands of years It was humans first introduc tion to the wealth of energy buried in the earth As coal became ever present in daily life people developed a love-hate relationship with it Some thought it provided protection against the bubonic plague Others blamed it for making people cranky and bald and with bad teeth to boot Coal smoke choked the air and its grimy dust clung to everything but the reward was that it changed cold into heat and brought light to the dark ness Threaded through the earth’s crust like ribbons this humble black rock lumps of compressed carbon opened the door to new technologies new economies and ultimately a transformed world 5
CHAPTER ONE A PORTABLE CLIMATE IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE WHAT HUMANS FIRST THOUGHT OF COAL It looked like any other rock But on further inspection it turned out to be something much better Like wood it burned Inside those black rocks was a reserve of energy collected some 300 million years ago Like a genie in a bottle its energy was just waiting to be released Hot and steamy That was the weather report from the Carboniferous period Conditions were perfect for trees and The late Carboniferous period featured swamp forests ideal for producing coal 6
plants to flourish in the swamps and bogs that covered large portions of the planet Like all living things this vegetation consisted mainly of carbon an element packed with energy When these plants died their leaves and branches sank into the water Sand mud water and rocks buried them These remains were not exposed to air so the carbon did not react with oxygen to become carbon dioxide Instead over time heat and pressure built up on this plant material These conditions pressed out any remaining moisture to leave behind slabs of black carbon-rich material coal Imagine a huge peanut butter and jelly sandwich That’s what coal seams look like inside the earth These seams range from a few inches to many feet thick There are several different types of coal Anthracite is the rarest It is very hard and contains the most carbon Anthracite is difficult to ignite but once it catches fire it burns the hottest of all the types of coal It produces more heat per pound but makes the least pollution Next on the scale are bituminous and sub-bituminous coal Bituminous coal has the higher carbon content of the two and it burns better However sub-bituminous coal has less sulfur one of coal’s most dangerous pollutants Lignite ranks at the bottom of the coal scale It has a low carbon content is softer and its color is more brown than black Unlike other fossil fuels such as oil a lot of coal is found closer to the surface of the earth It’s easy to reach so people have used it for centuries Scientists have discovered that people living 6,000 years ago during Coal seams can be up to 90 feet 27 4 m thick and 920 miles 1,481 km long 7
