Fossil fuels

Justin Rowlatt looks at the bonanza provided by coal, oil and gas in just the last two centuries. Our modern comfortable way of life is only made possible by burning through a finite stock of fossilised chemical energy. Today we are a fossil fuel society, according to the noted energy historian Vaclav Smil. Fossil fuels underpin everything we take for granted – our long leisurely lives, our material goods, even the crops needed to feed our gigantic populations.

Justin takes a tour through the history of the engine with Prof Paul Warde at London’s Science Museum. He explores the dark library of hydrocarbon fuels with chemist Andrea Sella. And he discovers how coal and natural gas created the materials that built our modern urban worlds. Indeed, our megacities emerged to exploit fossil fuels more efficiently, and to provide the crucible for an explosion of technology, according to physicist Geoffrey West, in a process analogous to the evolution of the human brain.

(Photo: Afghan laborer sorts coal wood as he wait for customers in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit: EPA)