Early in his book The Power Makers, Maury Klein does a fantastic job of explaining the importance that modern energy systems, like steam and electricity, played in human history:
All the achievements of humanity down to about the eighteenth century were constrained by the inability to find more efficient ways to do things beyond the capacity of muscle and tools that, however ingenious, still required muscle to operate them.
He also reveals that even before we burned fossil fuels to generate power, we resorted to other forms of environmental destruction:
A farmer had to cut down an acre of trees to supply enough fuel for a year…By one estimate a farmer spent a third of his time during the year doing the chores that provided fuel for the house—and over time the supply around him dwindled rapidly. Here, as elsewhere, civilization always came at the expense of nature.
I thought those were fascinating facts, well worth sharing.
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