In his 1865 book The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of Our Coal Mines, economist William Stanley Jevons discussed the implications of Britain’s dependency on coal. He classifies coal—at this point the primary source of energy in Britain—as a finite raw material. Jevons anticipated that due to its complete dependence on coal and its mismanagement of this resource, Britain’s political supremacy would be threatened. The Coal Question makes a case for a sustainable treatment of this non-renewable resource. Many of the topics addressed in this book are relevant to current discussions about sustainability, such as the limits of growth, overpopulation, alternative forms of energy, and resource use.
- Clark, Brett, and John Bellamy Foster. "William Stanley Jevons and 'The Coal Question': An Introduction to Jevons’s 'Of the Economy of Fuel'." Organization & Environment 14 (2001): 93–8.
- Jevons, William Stanley. The Coal Question: An Inquiry Concerning the Progress of the Nation, and the Probable Exhaustion of our Coal-Mines. 2nd, rev. edition. London: Macmillan, 1866. E-book