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 Understanding the capabilities of natural gas has helped countries shift toward cleaner energy 4
It took centuries for natural gas to be understood and even longer before it was appreciated In the early days of oil exploration there was no market for the natural gas that escaped as oil was extracted In fact wildcatters grumbled that the one thing worse than drilling a dry hole was finding gas instead How could an invisible floating substance be captured It was even more daunting to think of how to use it Gradually however observation prompted innovation Gas burned that much was obvious Why not harness that energy Once it had a purpose natural gas became a lot more attractive It would still require decades of technological tending to develop the market but now it was worth the effort 5
CHAPTER ONE GOD’S BREATH AN UNEARTHLY FORCE SEEMED TO BE AT WORK Flames came shooting out of the ground but their source was a mystery Was it the work of God Of the devil Ancient peoples didn’t know the answer They thought that the very air itself was burning It wasn’t of course There was something else mixed in the air colorless odorless natural gas that had escaped from underground The Chimera eternal flames in present-day Turkey are named for a mythological fire-spouting beast 6
Occasionally lightning ignited these gas seeps causing the ancient Greeks to believe a divine force was at work creating what they called an eternal flame They even built temples on the spots where God’s Breath seeped out of the ground In China 2,500 years ago people figured out a way to use this gas First they channeled it through hollow bamboo poles These poles led to a fire that boiled pots of seawater to extract the salt Since then the applications of natural gas have come a long way Today natural gas is used to heat homes and businesses as well as to fuel electric power plants It’s an important feedstock for the chemical industry Natural gas is used to make paper metal stone clay plastic and glass In North America many food crops are grown with the help of an ammonia-based fertilizer This fertilizer was produced with natural gas Have leftovers from a restaurant Get a take-home box made with ethylene a chemical that comes from natural gas 7
