As England entered the 18th century, manufacturers could not get enough wrought iron. The problem had nothing to do with a deficiency of ore. “In that respect,” an anonymous pamphleteer of the period observed, “nature has been very liberal.” “But,” he added, “for lack of wood and charcoal they are not being worked.” The country’s rich supply of coal was of no help. “No art or method is known and practiced,” one familiar with the iron trade of the time attested, “of making iron from ore but with charcoal.” Accessible wood supplies, those that could be delivered ... Read More
Peak Wood and the Bronze Age
April 12, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
E ver since humans began relying on fire, fuel became paramount to their survival. When using metals, fire and the fuel required to feed the flame took on great significance since most metals come from ores, and it takes heat — and lots of it — to remove the metal from its parent stone. The discovery of copper smelting and bronze production — mixing copper with tin to make a harder metal — had a powerful effect on human society for thousands of years. The alloy made weapons and tools much stronger and more durable than its wood, bone or stone antecedents. The Mediterranean world, ... Read More
Wood and Civilization
April 5, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
The author of A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization, writes a series for Miller-McCune on the world’s first energy crisis: peak wood. Part I: The Tree That Changed the World Part II: Wood and Civilization Part III: Peak Wood and the Bronze Age Part IV: Peak Wood Brings on the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Fossil Fuels From the first cave society to the end of the 18th century, the world lived in the Biomass Age with wood as its primary building material and fuel. England was first to leave the Era of Wood, embracing the fossil fuel coal at the dawn of the ... Read More
The Tree That Changed the World
March 29, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
The author of A Forest Journey: The Story of Wood and Civilization, begins a series of articles on the world’s first energy crisis: peak wood. Part I: The Tree That Changed the World Part II: Wood and Civilization Part III: Peak Wood and the Bronze Age Part IV: Peak Wood Brings on the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Fossil Fuels Astronomers for the longest time have regarded Venus as the planet most resembling Earth. Having almost the exact size as Earth and being almost as close to the sun has led many to call it Earth’s twin. The clouds always covering the Venusian ... Read More
Make Solar Light, Not War
March 26, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
In 2004, the streets of the Iraqi city of Fallujah erupted into the worst fear the American forces had: house-to-house fighting. The urban battle resulted in the bloodiest battle of the Iraq war with at least 800 civilians dead, much of the city's infrastructure destroyed or damaged, and a city of more than 200,000 deserted. As Fallujah's residents returned, they were angry with the occupiers for the carnage, destruction and "collateral damage." To keep the peace, the American military realized guns, grenades and other threats of violence had to give way to improving day-to-day life. ... Read More
Saving Sub-Sahara Africa a Drip at a Time
January 25, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
The hundred thousand people of the Kalalé District in northern Benin, a country in West Africa, like billions in the developing world, are not connected to power lines. All but one out of 20 rely on farming for their livelihood, and most just scrape by. During the dry season from November through April, many suffer from malnutrition, a condition so common it gets its own name, kwashiorkor. One Kalalian, Mamoudou Setamou, teaches about insects and integrated pest management at Texas A&M. He hasn't forgotten his roots and returns to Kalalé to participate in local community functions ... Read More
Oil and Solar Do Mix
September 19, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Oil and solar do mix — and have for a long time. Last month, the oil and solar industry joined hands in an oil field about a century off its prime Chevron owns in Coalinga, Calif., where steam is required to sufficiently thin what oil remains so it can be extracted. The oil company signed a deal with Bright Source Energy to build a demonstration project: Thousands of flat mirrors will reflect concentrated sunlight on a boiler atop a tower, superheating the water to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit to produce high-pressure steam. The mirrors will move throughout the day to track the sun. While the ... Read More
The Largest Solar Water Heater Plant is in … Denmark?
August 21, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
The cobblestone streets and historic houses and shops create the impression that nothing on the Danish island of Ærø (aka Aero) has changed for centuries, and its biggest tourist attraction traditionally was its ship-in-a-bottle museum. But a trek just outside its largest towns will bring a 20th-century surprise — giant solar water heating plants. Interest in the solar alternative began on the island in the 1970s with Denmark's "No to Nuclear" movement. The two oil shocks of that decade when petroleum prices leapt and availability plummeted added to solar's attraction. "Ordinary ... Read More
Saving Fuel But Melting Ice Faster
August 7, 2009 • By • 2 Comments
For centuries people in the West believed, as the philosopher Gottfried Leibniz articulated in the 17th century, "Everything exquisite and admirable comes from the East Indies. Learned people have remarked that in the whole world there is no commerce comparable to that of China." Europeans therefore took to the seas to get there once the land route to the East known as the Silk Road became difficult to access in the 1400s. The restriction on trade to the east motivated Columbus to sail west in search of a new route. Once people realized that he had not reached the East, other mariners ... Read More
Ponderous Polluters Let a Little Light Shine in
July 17, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Driving a Prius down the highway and passing those gas-guzzling SUVs gives a sense of greenness that owning an automobile has never provided before. Those who install SunTech solar panels or other brands from overseas enjoy a similar pride in their commitment for a cleaner world; they feel greener than those bare-roofed people next door. Knowing of the cloud of emissions pouring from the smokestacks of the container ships that brought these commodities to their doorstep might give them second thoughts. But they shouldn't feel too bamboozled. When negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, climate ... Read More
