Charles C. Mann Quote
In the past few decades, China has lifted more than half a billion people out of destitution—an astonishing accomplishment. That advance was driven by industrialization, and that industrialization was driven almost entirely by coal. More than three-quarters of China’s electricity comes from coal. More coal goes to heating millions of homes, smelting steel (China produces nearly half the world’s steel), and baking limestone to make cement (China is responsible for almost half the world’s cement). In its frantic quest to industrialize, China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world put together.
Charles C. Mann
In the past few decades, China has lifted more than half a billion people out of destitution—an astonishing accomplishment. That advance was driven by industrialization, and that industrialization was driven almost entirely by coal. More than three-quarters of China’s electricity comes from coal. More coal goes to heating millions of homes, smelting steel (China produces nearly half the world’s steel), and baking limestone to make cement (China is responsible for almost half the world’s cement). In its frantic quest to industrialize, China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world put together.
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About Charles C. Mann
Charles C. Mann (born 1955) is an American journalist and author, specializing in scientific topics. In 2006 his book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus won the National Academies Communication Award for best book of the year. He is the co-author of four books, and contributing editor for Science, The Atlantic Monthly, and Wired.