Without doubt the transformative moment came in the mid-nineteenth century, when the various German states began shifting from wood to coal as a fuel source to feed the new steam engines coming from Great Britain…
Economist William Stanley Jevons explores the implications of Britain’s dependency on coal.
Abraham Darby introduces coke to the Coalbrookdale blast furnace, leading to a major breakthrough for the production of iron.
John Evelyn’s report for King Charles II of England becomes one of the first tracts on urban air pollution.
Egon Glesinger publishes his study on the global importance of wood as a raw material.
Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius’s study On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground is published.
