History of energy
The study of how societies have produced, distributed, and used energy, and how energy systems have shaped economies, environments, and everyday life.
Energy transition: A large-scale shift in the primary energy sources and technologies used by a society. Tracks how societies move between energy systems, such as wood, coal, oil, and electricity.
Neolithic Revolution: The transition in many regions from foraging to farming and settled communities. Agriculture increased control over food energy and reorganized human labor.
Great Acceleration: The sharp rise in human population, economic activity, and environmental pressures after the mid-twentieth century. Its rapid growth coincided with an unprecedented expansion of fossil-fuel use.
James Watt: A Scottish engineer whose improvements to the steam engine helped make it practical for widespread industrial use. His engine improvements increased the usefulness of coal-powered mechanical work.
Renewable energy: Energy derived from sources replenished on human timescales, such as sunlight, wind, and flowing water. Its expanding use contrasts with the finite fuels that dominated industrial growth.
Energy return on investment: The ratio of energy delivered by a process to the energy required to obtain it. Shows how extraction costs shape the surplus energy available to economies.
Industrial Revolution: The major transformation of production, transport, and society beginning in Britain in the eighteenth century. Coal-fired steam power broke production from immediate human, animal, and water power.
Climate change: Long-term shifts in climate patterns, including recent warming driven mainly by human greenhouse-gas emissions. Combustion of coal, oil, and gas has become the dominant human driver of warming.
Thomas Edison: An American inventor and entrepreneur associated with practical electric lighting and commercial power systems. His companies helped establish centralized electricity supply for urban customers.
Fossil fuel: A fuel formed from ancient organic matter, chiefly coal, petroleum, and natural gas. Fossil fuels powered modern industrialization but produce greenhouse gases when burned.