the abundance of fossil fuels and their increasingly more efficient conversions have been the dominant energizers of modern economic growth, bringing us the benefits of greater longevity and richer lives—but also concerns about the long-term effects of CO2 emissions on the global climate (commonly referred to as global warming).

Of course, the advances of globalization were closely tied not only to the rising capacities and better performance of powerful prime movers but also to the relentless miniaturization of components needed for computing, information processing, and communication. The development of radio, and later of television and the first electronic computers,

grains—even grains after processing and conversion into our favorite foods—are at the bottom of our food energy subsidy ladder. What would be the consequences of following such a dubious dietary recommendation, now pushed by some promoters under the misleading label of the “Paleolithic diet,” as avoiding all cereals and switching instead to diets

Mass-scale car usage in Europe and Japan and the concurrent conversion of their economies from coal to crude oil, and later to natural gas, began only during the 1950s, as did the expansion of foreign trade and travel (including the first jetliners) and the use of petrochemical feedstocks for the synthesis of ammonia and plastics. Global oil

In 1995, crude oil extraction finally surpassed the 1979 record and then continued to rise, meeting the demand of an economically reforming China as well as the rising demand elsewhere in Asia—but oil has not regained its pre-1975 relative dominance.[49] Its share of the global commercial primary energy supply fell from 45 percent in 1970 to 38

One possible solution is to replace steel with aluminum. This lowers the mass of a specific design, but primary aluminum requires five to six times more energy to produce than primary steel, and it cannot be used in many applications that require steel’s much greater strength. The most radical way to cut energy costs and the environmental impact of

greenhouse tomatoes are among the world’s most heavily fertilized crops: per unit area they receive up to 10 times as much nitrogen (and also phosphorus) as is used to produce grain corn, America’s leading field crop.[38] Sulfur, magnesium, and other micronutrients are also used, as are chemicals protecting against insects and fungi. Heating is the

This universal inclination to discount the future matters greatly when contemplating such complex and costly undertakings as pricing carbon in order to mitigate global climate change, because there would no discernible economic benefits for the generation of people that would launch the expensive quest.

The durability of concrete structures varies widely: while it is impossible to offer an average longevity figure, many will deteriorate badly after just two or three decades while others will do well for 60–100 years. This means that during the 21st century we will face unprecedented burdens of concrete deterioration, renewal, and removal (with,