Word: coal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Most Values Commodities --Gold --Coal --Timber --Steel --Armaments...
...years. He says he bought the weapons for use in strikes. But his critics--most of whom say they are afraid to be quoted by name--tell a different story. They say that Morris, who traces his roots and tactics back to the Molly Maguires, the fierce coal miners who waged violent battles against mineowners in the 1870s, has become increasingly erratic and violent over the past few years. Teamster officials say Morris' men have told them the weapons were being readied to disrupt the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia next July. It is not as farfetched as it sounds...
...China's economic reforms began putting enough money in people's pockets to enable even peasants like Zhenbing's parents to buy coal. Today coal supplies 73% of China's energy, and there is enough beneath the country to last an additional 300 years at current consumption rates. Plainly, that is good news in one respect. Burning coal has made the Chinese people (somewhat) warm in winter for the first time in their history. But multiply Zhenbing's story by China's huge population, and you understand why 9 of the world's 10 most air-polluted cities are found...
Equally alarming is what China's coal burning is doing to the planet as a whole. China has become the world's second largest producer of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, and it will be No. 1 by 2020 if it triples coal consumption as planned. But the U.S., the other environmental superpower, has no right to point a finger. Americans lead the world in greenhouse-gas production, mainly because of their ever tightening addiction to the car, the source of almost 40% of U.S. emissions...
Which returns us to gasoline and its source, petroleum. The earth's underground stores of petroleum are not quite as ample as those of coal or natural gas, but there is enough to supply humanity for many decades, even with rising population and living standards. Crippling shortages may still occur, of course. But they will arise from skulduggery or incompetence on the part of corporations or governments, not from any physical scarcity...