That’s why I said we don’t know the overall effect on the biome due to less efficient engines
With how quickly we industrialized, my intuition is we were mining and burning it as fast as possible, but maybe more efficient engines could have let us mine and burn even more
Cambridge University found that the steam engine was held back for ~40 years because of bad patents
https://archive.org/details/againstintellect0000bold
You mean 40 years of delay for the destruction of our biosphere?
I’d call that a win.
40 years of burning far more coal than necessary due to inefficient engines
Whether the overall effect was positive or negative with respect to the biome, no clue
Yes, but also induced demand. More efficient engines means less coal per task, but more tasks, maybe so many more that total coal use increases.
That’s why I said we don’t know the overall effect on the biome due to less efficient engines
With how quickly we industrialized, my intuition is we were mining and burning it as fast as possible, but maybe more efficient engines could have let us mine and burn even more