Word: coal
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...than two centuries ago, with the Industrial Revolution. Using the new technology of the steam engine in the early 19th century, and the internal combustion engine in the century just ended, society found itself able to exploit on a massive scale the energy locked in such fossil fuels as coal, oil and gas. At the same time, dramatic gains in agricultural productivity made possible by mechanized farming, fertilizers and more efficient water use pushed people from farms into factories and cities. The net result was a revolution in living standards that the world had never seen or even imagined possible...
...many parts of the world, it hasn't even happened yet. About 2.5 billion people have no access to modern energy services, and the power demands of developing economies are expected to grow 2.5% per year. But if those demands are met by burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas, more and more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will hit the atmosphere. That, scientists tell us, will promote global warming, which could lead to rising seas, fiercer storms, severe droughts and other climatic disruptions...
...guess what? Wind is becoming more than a quixotic sideshow. It's now the world's fastest growing power source--a high-tech challenge to the coal mines, oil rigs, nuclear reactors and hydroelectric dams that seem, well, so 20th century. Experts say wind could provide up to 12% of the earth's electricity within two decades. Wind farms in Texas, Oregon, Kansas and elsewhere helped lift U.S. wind-energy output 66% last year, and an additional $3 billion in American projects are in the works. "Wind is competitive," wrote Mark Moody-Stewart, the former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell...
...promise is tantalizing. Windmills generate renewable power, so called because the source of the energy, wind, is continually renewed by nature (ditto for solar cells, which are powered by the sun; geothermal systems, which use the earth's heat; and hydroelectricity, which flows from dams). Unlike oil and coal deposits, renewable energy can't be exhausted, at least not until the sun burns out billions of years from now and earth goes cold...
UKRAINE Mine Blast Ukraine President Leonid Kuchma promised to close all unsafe coal mines following an explosion that killed 20 miners?the third major mining accident in the country in recent weeks. The blast occurred 1,076 m below ground at the Zasyadko mine in the eastern Donetsk region when about 700 miners were in the pit. Ukraine's aging mines are among the world's most dangerous...