"**Until the 1700s, people could only really get energy from three main sources: their livestock, wood from forests and human power**. But these sources don’t scale very well: we don’t have unlimited forests, and there’s only so much a human can do. **Human development was hindered by not having a scalable source of energy. Then we discovered coal**. ([Location 1340](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0C3X6X695&location=1340))" --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[energy-ladder]], [[energy-efficiency]], [[coal-energy]], [[energy-transition]], [[technology]], [[growth]] **Source** -- [[260103133118 - B - Not the End of the World]]