BEFORE FOSSIL FUELS-Early humans learned that fire from the combustion of wood and dung was beneficial. It allowed them to flourish in spite of the challenges of Nature.
In physics, resilience is the ability of an elastic material (such as rubber or animal tissue) to absorb energy (such as from a blow) and release that energy as it springs back to its original shape. But it also means the ability to recover from difficulties or bad situations. The word resilience derives from the present participle of the Latin verb resilire, meaning “to jump back” or “to recoil.”
Now the climate of the earth is constantly changing. Let’s keep it simple, it can get seasonably warmer or seasonably colder. A seasonable variation can affect crop production, insect populations, as well as animal health (including humans). For millennia, humans have been adapting to seasonal variations. They have built shelters, improved crop performance, preserved foods, or even migrated to a better climate. And for millennia, human population growth had been limited by the sheer, time consuming effort to resist adverse swings in the climate. That all changed with the industrial age and the effective use of fossil fuel to alter the negative effects of a shifting environment and deteriorating living conditions.
Sure, the average earth temperature has been warming slightly for several thousand years as we have moved out of the last ice age. But we are headed towards another ice age and the minor contribution of CO2 to the atmosphere has slowed the cooling rate somewhat and that is a good thing. It has helped in the greening of the earth which benefits both plants and animals. And it has provided the means to live the comfortable lives enjoyed by the people in developed nations. It will eventually provide those same benefits to those in developing nations.
Humans discovered fire, cooked their food and warmed their living quarters. They started with wood, then peat and coal. The ability of humans to resist changes in the climate,to be resilient, was delivered by this first fossil fuel. Coal gave us the means to develop natural gas and petroleum. For electrical power generation, coal has been the most cost effective, reliable, transportable, environmentally sound and scalable source of energy ever applied to the benefit of humankind. It still is.
COAL-THE FIRST FOSSIL FUEL -- Remaining Reserves at Today’s Rate of Consumption-1000 Years or more