Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption

Coal, gas, and oil have powered our societies for hundreds of years. But the pace at which we use them changed dramatically in the twentieth century: of all the fossil fuels ever consumed, more than half were burnt up in the past fifty years alone, the vast majority of that within a single generation. Most worrying of all, this dramatic acceleration has occurred against the backdrop of an increasingly unanimous scientific consensus: that their environmental impact is devastating and potenti...