Bring Back Coal (All is Forgiven)
Dr Vernon Coleman
The Industrial Revolution revolved entirely around fossil fuels. It was coal and oil which changed our economy from an agrarian, handicraft one to an economy dominated by industry and machine manufacture. It was the Industrial Revolution which led to the use of iron and steel, instead of wood, and, eventually, to the introduction of new energy sources such as electricity. It was the Industrial Revolution which led to the invention of new machines (such as the spinning jenny), the development of the factory system and to the development of the steam engine, the telegraph, the internal combustion engine and the jet engine. It was the factory system, a result of the Industrial Revolution, which led to the development of schools (so that there would be somewhere for children to go while their parents worked in the factories, and so that children would grow up accustomed to a day spent working) and terraced housing (so that workers could be accommodated close to the factories where they worked).
The Industrial Revolution resulted in changes in agriculture (tractors instead of horses), political changes (workers, now paying tax, wanting votes) and enormous social changes.
The Industrial Revolution was largely confined to England, and then Britain, until 1830. It then spread to France before reaching Germany and, eventually, the USA. Now England's great Revolution has spread to China, India and the rest of Asia. Everywhere that the Industrial Revolution went it was built upon a supply of fossil fuels.
And coal was the first fossil fuel to change our lives.
Before mankind discovered the benefits of coal our sources of energy were food and wood. Energy depended entirely on stuff we could grow - using our own muscles to do the digging and the sowing.
When men started digging coal out of the ground they started using energy sources that were already in existence - and had been formed generations before. Coal, oil and other fossil fuels are just what the name says: fossil fuels. They are created when ancient bits of matter are steadily crushed by billions of tons of rock. Despite modern myths, it takes millions of years for fossil fuels to form.
Coal was being burnt for heating and cooking in China 4,000 years ago. It was used in mediaeval Europe too, though it didn't overtake wood as a fuel because it had to be mined and transported - both of which required a good deal of effort and energy.
By the early 17th century English manufacturers producing iron and steel discovered that the higher temperatures possible with coal made it easy to smelt iron and work with metal.
But it was still difficult to get coal out of the ground. The biggest problem was that water tended to accumulate at the bottom of the mine shafts. In 1712 this problem was solved when Samuel Newcomen invented a simple steam engine specifically to pump water out of coal mines. And so, slowly, the industrial age was born out of the rediscovery of coal.
In 1803 an English engineer called Richard Trevithick used the improvements devised by James Watt and installed a steam engine on a carriage, intending it for use on the roads. Unfortunately, roads hadn't yet been invented and the steam carriage wasn't much use until George Stephenson (another Englishman) put the steam locomotive on rails. Not surprisingly, the rails he used were similar to those used in the tramways in coal mines.
Things moved swiftly after that. In the 1790s an English engineer lit his factory with gaslights. In 1804 gas lighting was installed on the streets of London. By 1840 steam engines were being used on ships. And in 1854 coal-tar dyes were discovered and the chemical industry was born.
In 1800 the annual world coal output was 15 million tons. By 1900 the annual world coal output was 700 million tons and coal had transformed the world. The 19th century was the Coal Age.
We definitely need to bring back coal for those wise and fortunate citizens who have fireplaces and chimneys in their homes. (Now you know why the bastards stopped building houses with chimneys).
Coal is an excellent source of heat but was deliberately demonised so that we would become dependent upon oil and gas. The conspirators knew darned well that these imported and limited sources of energy would cost more than home grown coal. The oil is running out and the deliberately manufactured `war’ with Russia means that oil shortages are intensified – with an appropriate rise in prices. Britain has energy supplies in the North Sea but the Government has taxed these out of existence. The plan has always been to impoverish us and freeze us to death.
I know that the air pollution caused by coal is not good but I also know that the cold (exacerbated by the deliberate blocking of the sun) will kill millions every year.
In the UK alone around 100,000 old people will die in the coming winter because of the cold. Since they are dying because of deliberate policies they are actually being murdered. The number injured or killed by burning coal is minute in comparison.
We need a real campaign to bring coal back. Now widely denigrated by ignorant people who believe in the global warming nonsense and who are dedicated to Net Zero, coal gave us the foundations of our modern civilisation.
There is rumoured to be enough coal for 300 years in the Welsh mines which have been closed by the global warming enthusiasts. (Wasn’t it heart-warming to see huge armies of virtue signalling global warming hypocrites fly into Brazil – many of them in private planes - to share the usual lies? Free Suits and Wet Willy were there, of course, though I was pleased to see that the Donald didn’t go. What a pity someone hasn’t invented a system whereby all these cultists could meet via computer without having to fly somewhere nice. They could call it Zoom. But then they wouldn’t be able to enjoy regular tax payer funded holidays in exciting places.)
The UK as a whole is said to have coal resources totalling 187 billion tonnes – more than enough to keep old aged pensioners warm for a year or two. But having closed down its own coal mines (because of the global warming cultists) Britain is importing what little coal it has from other countries – including Japan. Maybe the coal is coming over on rowing boats - but I suspect that like the wood pellets imported from the USA it’s coming in diesel powered ships.
It may one day occur to global warming cultists that the coal which is imported into Britain in large diesel drinking ships is less `green’ than coal dug out of Welsh pits.
Come back coal! All is forgiven. Bringing back coal would revitalise a lost industry and provide a massive amount of essential employment. And I am far more interested in looking after real people who are in danger of starving or freezing to death than in protecting the pseudoscientific, unsupportable myth of global warming.
Maybe I should have badges and T shirts made with the ‘Bring Back Coal’ slogan.
NOTE
Please visit the bookshop on www.vernoncoleman.com
Copyright Vernon Coleman November 2025
Home