FIRE DOWN BELOW

摘要

King coal is ready for a comeback. The dirtiest, most polluting fossil fuel on the planet seemed doomed in a world of cheap gas and worries about global warming. But now it could be set to return, and in a form that smacks more of medieval hellfire than an energy source fit for the 21st century. Environmentalists have not yet heard about the plans. But when they do, they will be up in arms. Because, under the guise of offering a "clean" technique for unlocking the energy from coal reserves, engineers are actually concocting a way to increase massively the amount of coal the world can get its hands on. If even a fraction of it gets burnt to satisfy our hunger for energy, awesome quantities of carbon could be poured into the atmosphere, unleashing runaway global warming across the planet. The question is: do the engineers have an answer that could make exploiting this energy source a realistic possibility?