Energy resources have always been a fundamental actor in human development, and have had an important influence on our technologies, cultures and societies. However, it is only with industrialization and the rise of fossil fuel consumption that energy systems have come to the fore of world governance. Without playing a ‘chicken or egg’ game of causation, Burning Up moves from the necessary question of how embedded fossil fuels are in our socio-economic and cultural systems, to how much we can disentangle them without dramatic changes – the answer being, very little. In order to reach these conclusions, the author provides a detailed economic and social history of fossil fuel consumption, showing the origins and development of our Age of Fossil Fuels and the economic, technological, and social systems of which fossil fuels are a part.

中文翻译：

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西蒙·皮拉尼（Simon Pirani），燃烧起来。化石燃料消费的全球历史

能源一直是人类发展的基本角色，并且对我们的技术，文化和社会产生了重要影响。但是，只有随着工业化和化石燃料消耗量的增加，能源系统才成为世界治理的重点。没有玩因果关系的“鸡还是蛋”游戏，就在燃烧从关于嵌入化石燃料在我们的社会经济和文化系统中如何存在的必要问题，转变为在不进行重大变化的情况下我们可以解开化石燃料的多少–答案很少。为了得出这些结论，作者提供了详细的化石燃料消费的经济和社会历史，显示了我们化石燃料时代的起源和发展以及化石燃料是其中一部分的经济，技术和社会体系。