a global history of fossil fuel consumption Pirani, Simon 1957- creator author text bibliography History. Print books. enk ©2018 2018 2018 monographic eng

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255 p: illustrations ; 23 cm Coal, gas and oil have powered our societies for hundreds of years. But the pace at which we use them changed dramatically in the 20th century: of all the fossil fuels ever consumed, more than half were burnt up in the past 50 years alone, the vast majority of that within a single generation. Most worrying of all, this dramatic acceleration has occurred against the backdrop of an increasingly unanimous scientific consensus: that their environmental impact is devastating and potentially irreversible. In 'Burning Up', Simon Pirani recounts the history of the relentless rise of fossil fuels in the past half century, and lays out the ways in which the expansion of the global capitalist economy has driven it forward Introduction -- Part I: Contexts : 1. Fossil fuels before 1950 -- 2. Energy technologies -- 3. Energy in society -- 4. Fossil fuel consumption in numbers -- Part II: Chronologies : 5. The 1950s and 1960s: post-war boom -- 6. The 1970s: crises and oil price shocks -- 7. Patterns of electrification -- 8. The 1980s: recession and recovery -- 9. The 1990s: shunning the global warming challenge -- 10. The 2000s: acceleration renewed -- Part III: Reflections : -- 11. Interpretations and ideologies -- 12. Possibilities -- 13. Conclusions -- Appendices : Appendix 1. Measuring environmental impacts, energy flows and inequalities -- Appendix 2. Additional figures and tables Simon Pirani Includes bibliographical references (pages [212]-248) and index Fossil fuels History Fossil fuels Environmental aspects Fossil fuels Economic aspects Energy consumption History TP319 .P57 2018 HD9502.A2 P56 2018 9780745335629 YDX 170509 20200102115447.0 986680332 eng