Foreword
In the second decade of this century, we are on the edge of a revolution in which all aspects of our existence will be reconceived and reformed. What will probably become known as the Carbonaceous era of human history is coming to an end – roughly two centuries of development based on mining millions of years' worth of long-dead animals and plants, the fossils we turned into fuels. The legacy of that carbonaceous power can be found embedded in our material world, in its physical infrastructure, and in the products, services, and systems that underpin our economies and provide for our lifestyles. But fossil fuels are a finite resource, and the demand for oil is already exhausting the easily available supply with growing economic and geopolitical repercussions. All that previously locked-up carbon we have released into the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution is heating the biosphere and changing our climate, threatening all aspects of human life that are dependent on suitable climatic conditions.
The consequences of continuing with a carbon-based economy are unthinkable, but centuries of dependence are clearly not easy to overcome. Established systems of power have disrupted progress on global action over many decades, in spite of increasingly urgent projections from climate science. Until the turn of the twenty-first century, the consensus was that we needed action to keep the rise in global temperature below 2.0̊C (compared to pre–Industrial Revolution levels). ...
