COAL: A Human History (p.43-p.101)

To be honest at this point, I really do not know what to write about this book. The main subject for the past four chapters is just COAL, the author does not do anything else but talk and talk about coal. Off course it involves a whole bunch of history and its been really hard for me to retain most of it (not an expertise in history). But in this blog I will just give you some key points about some of the history and dates that I learned during this chunk of the book.

• After coal had been used for just burning fire, since 1306, finally in the 1700s the the steam engine was created; after 394yrs coal was used for turning fuel into motion!!!
• In the seventeenth century coal mines, has been one of the most dangerous workplaces in history, its hard to imagine any other than the coal mines. The workers were risking their lives every time they entered their job, risking to loose their lives if, for example, the ceiling would collapse or the mine would explode.
• Underground water was very dangerous to the miners and to the citizens. The water in the mines was so dangerous that it almost caused the closing of the mines, but the nation had already becomed so dependent to coal.
• Even though in the nineteenth century Manchester was known for it cotton industry, it was coal what charactirized the city. The city smelled, and had coal all over, it also began to develope factories.
• Coal has covered the air in cities such as London, for one full day.

Its interesting how knowing all the dangers that we face by using coal, we do not take any actions in trying to make a change. By using so much coal, not only are we hurting the Earth but we are ending with a non-renewable resource, that we are dependent on and that if one day we ran out of it our lives would have to change drastically. This would even change our lives in a way that we would have to learn how to live without electricity.

CAN YOU IMAGINE OUR WORLD, HOW WE KNOW IT TODAY, WITHOUT ELECTRICITY?!