Intro 3
Surprises?

Passive solar architecture distinguished civilization from barbarism in Greek classical age

“Though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but understood not. But like shapes in dreams, throughout their time, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. They lacked knowledge of houses turned to face the sun, dwelling beneath the ground like swarming ants in sunless caves.”

 

-- Aeschylus 525-456 BC, refers to barbarians in Promethius Bound

The Industrial revolution would have occurred anyway -- without coal or oil.

The modern industrial revolution was more the product of the steady accretion of mechanical skills than the advent of new energy sources. It would have come into existence and gone on steadily "had not a ton of coal been dug in England, and had not a new iron mine been opened."

-- Louis Mumford, Technics and Civilization, 1934.

The idea of substituting renewables when coal and oil are depleted is well over a century old.

"The time will come when Europe must stop her mills and factories for want of coal. Upper Egypt then, with her never-ceasing sun power, will invite the European manufacturer to move his machinery and erect his mills on the [banks] of the Nile...."

-- John Ericcson, Mechanic and Builder, July, 1887

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