A new growth industry?

摘要

Charcoal has rather gone out of fashion. Before the industrial revolution, whole forests disappeared into the charcoal-burners' maw to provide the carbon that ironmakers need to reduce their ore to metal. Then, an English ironmaker called Abraham Darby discovered how to do the job with coke. From that point onward, the charcoal-burners' days were numbered. The rise of coal, from which coke is produced, began, and so did the modern rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.