This book begins talking about when coal first begann to be burned, and that was the summer of 1306 in England. (Nobles were comparing the smell of burning coal to that of the usual stenches of the medieval, such as: the unsewered waste, animal dung and the rotting waste. Then nobles said that the burning coal smells worst that the medieval stenches.) But at that time the nobles led demonstrations of how bad the new fuel was, therefore King Edward I banned the burning of coal. When I read about this I was thinking how different would our lives be if the ban had not been lifted, in the 1500s. One thing for sure our Earth would not be facing this crisis now, global warming.
The author Barbara Freese mentions she was part of a trial, since she is an environmental attorney in the state of Minnesota. With this she mentions that representatives of the nation's coal industry brought scientists that said "that Minnesota should ignore what the vast majority of their colleagues around the world were saying... that the climate was not changing except in small ways we were all going to enjoy" (p8). This comment was very naive, and could cause dangerous outcomes for the Earth. In this chapter it also mentions that the United States uses lots of coal in order to produce electricity; therefore the U.S. has a large contribution with global warming.
While continuing reading I learned that citizens in Rome used coal as a fashionable item, and they wore it as clothing. I found this fact interesting because who would like to use that object now days that is known to hurt our environment. Another fact that captured my attention at the beginning of the chapter was that some used coal to burn the dead.
I was also very impressed when it began talking about the world before the plate tectonics began to move and the water levels began to change. It impressed me to find out that there were trees that reached up to 35ft high, they were called lepidodendron. Another amazing thing that was mentioned was that during this time the dragonflies had an amazing size, just imagine their wings widespread measured 30in.
During this reading I also learned some facts about the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. This began in Europe when a ship arrived to the Sicilian Harbor in October 1347. Before this ship arrived the Bubonic Plague was already devastating the population in China, India and the Middle East.
At the end of this reading, the acceptance of coal was different from the beginning of the book. In contrast to the beginning of the book, when Londoners did not tolerate coal, by the mid-1600s they were desperate to have it. This was expected, but imagine how different our world would be nowadays if coal would have never been accepted. I know that we might of not had the commodities such as electricity, but would we be facing global warming and the climate change in our world. How different would it be that we would not be putting in danger the life of our earth.
I was also very impressed when it began talking about the world before the plate tectonics began to move and the water levels began to change. It impressed me to find out that there were trees that reached up to 35ft high, they were called lepidodendron. Another amazing thing that was mentioned was that during this time the dragonflies had an amazing size, just imagine their wings widespread measured 30in.
During this reading I also learned some facts about the Bubonic Plague, also known as the Black Death. This began in Europe when a ship arrived to the Sicilian Harbor in October 1347. Before this ship arrived the Bubonic Plague was already devastating the population in China, India and the Middle East.
At the end of this reading, the acceptance of coal was different from the beginning of the book. In contrast to the beginning of the book, when Londoners did not tolerate coal, by the mid-1600s they were desperate to have it. This was expected, but imagine how different our world would be nowadays if coal would have never been accepted. I know that we might of not had the commodities such as electricity, but would we be facing global warming and the climate change in our world. How different would it be that we would not be putting in danger the life of our earth.
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