Coal. Hint of silt.

Bioenergy is oil.

Here's a piece of coal.

When that gas blows up, people die.

They burned some coal.

Coal is a fossil fuel.

The thread that links them all our addiction to carbon based fuels,

The argument that it's a bridge fuel makes sense, because the amount of CO2 per unit of energy is lower than oil and coal, correct?

When this happens, they're compressed under tons of pressure, and turned into carbon based fossil fuels

This is the story of how Harriet came to pay attention.

Now, what does this have to do with energy?

Coal dust.

More coal doctor.

Coal consists mostly of carbon.

The coal is burning.

Massive coal reserves.

And so the question is Can you actually get that to zero?

If we burn fuels such as coal, oil and gas, they give off various gases.

China had been the most powerful nation in the world and they came to the United States in search of coal, and they found it, and, in fact, they found lots of it right here.

The coal belt in Northern China,

But in the meantime, for the next decade at least, the name of the game is hydrocarbons.

Let me say that again.

The reason why is because of the radioactive releases from coal.

A crow is as black as coal.

But as you think of coal, this is what burned wheat kernels look like.

it's a hot coal.

But I brought along here a lump of coal right here, one lump of coal.

Coal is not always black.

Oil is a problem, and coal is the most serious problem.

(Laughter)

Hands weathered and worn and proud of it.

However there is a political battle in our country.

They substituted coal for oil.

Geologists scoured America.

You burn the gas, that radon's being released. Nobody counts that radon against the gas.

It has many consequences.

The coal in the stove is burning.

The coals are burning red.

Of those, only nuclear and hydro are green.

Much of the high quality anthracite coal is gone,

Al Gore This is the source of much of the coal in West Virginia.

We already have some indicators of productivity on this stuff.

When the Industrial Revolution started, the amount of carbon sitting underneath Britain in the form of coal was as big as the amount of carbon sitting under Saudi Arabia in the form of oil.

English economist William Stanley Jevons realised that Better steam engines made coal a more cost effective fuel source, which led to the use of more steam engines, which increased total coal consumption.

So instead of using carbon from oil for synthetic processes, we have the chance of using carbon and capturing it back from the atmosphere, converting that into biopolymers or other products.