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A review by richardwells
Coal: A Human History by Barbara Freese
4.0
Human beings need fuel, that means something has to burn, and pollution and side effects are a fact of life. The sun's going to be around a lot longer than humans (probably), and as skin cancer goes to show, is not without problems of its own. Wood is inefficient for industrial use, and anyway, nobody really wants to deforest the earth - well, I guess that's debatable. Oil is limited, more and more expensive, and drilling is more and more a disaster waiting to happen. Nuclear power? Oh yeah, we're going to keep that waste safe for 10,000 years, uh huh. Some folks are looking to hydrogen, but it takes more energy to separate H from whatever else it's attached to, that it's just not worth it. Coal is just plain awful: it's dangerous to get, it's got by the worst means possible - mountain topping and strip mining to name two, it causes all kinds or respiratory problems but it's the most plentiful fuel humans have, and the USA has more of it than just about anyone else.
Coal ushered in the industrial age, propelled advances in steel production, transportation, and the electrification of the world, and continues to be a driver to the world economy.
"Coal: a Human History," is the fascinating tale of the use of coal from jewelry to fuel. I was amazed to learn how coal (Old King Coal) built the British Empire, and how Britain's world colonizing fleet was built for the transport and protection of coal. I shuddered at the image of children on their hands and knees pulling coal carts out of the pits. I'll never look at a black umbrella in the same way; and I wheezed as I read about London and Pittsburg. Coal is loaded with fascinating information, and is an involving social history as well.
We're going to be debating clean energy and climate change for awhile, this book can give context to those discussions, and, sorry in advance - add fuel to the fire.
Coal ushered in the industrial age, propelled advances in steel production, transportation, and the electrification of the world, and continues to be a driver to the world economy.
"Coal: a Human History," is the fascinating tale of the use of coal from jewelry to fuel. I was amazed to learn how coal (Old King Coal) built the British Empire, and how Britain's world colonizing fleet was built for the transport and protection of coal. I shuddered at the image of children on their hands and knees pulling coal carts out of the pits. I'll never look at a black umbrella in the same way; and I wheezed as I read about London and Pittsburg. Coal is loaded with fascinating information, and is an involving social history as well.
We're going to be debating clean energy and climate change for awhile, this book can give context to those discussions, and, sorry in advance - add fuel to the fire.