The Age of Carbon Fuels. A London-Paris bike tour:
- To celebrate all that carbon-fuelled industrialisation has brought us.
- To recognise that in future progress has to be less damaging to our planet.
- To help less privileged communities benefit more from the advances made.
This is a pilgrimage in 3 stages. It visits iconic sites that illustrate the huge advances made since the Pre-Industrial world that was swept aside by the Age of Carbon Fuels = which in turn must now be followed by a more Sustainable Future.
- A day trip around key sites in London
- A multi-day ride from London via Newhaven, then Dieppe to Paris
- A day trip around key sites in Paris
Pedal with a purpose. Just look around – homes, utilities, vehicles, communications. Industrialised nations have got it all. By burning coal, oil and gas we powered the Industrial Revolution and built today’s amazing world. We’re reaping the benefits. Now we face the consequences. Polluted land, seas & skies. Disrupted climate. Resource greed. All the stresses from the stark inequalities between industrialised and non-industrialised nations.
For the sake of generations to come, perhaps we can -should- take greater care of the natural world and work towards sharing the benefits more equitably. This bike tour shines a spotlight on how much we’ve gained and hopefully prompts some reflection on the issues we now face.
Click the pics below for full details of each of the 3 stages.
London. The start of it all...
A day-trip round the birthplace of the Age of Carbon Fuels
London was cradle to the Industrial Revolution that kicked off 250 years ago. We see the buildings, ships and simple machinery that existed before; the skyscrapers, warships and massive hydraulic machines we have today; glimpses of the sustainable world we are heading to next.
Finally the seat of the UK government where our leaders grapple with the consequences of it all.
A journey between two cities…
A multi-day tour.
From London to Paris via Newhaven & Dieppe. Time to reflect. Examples of pre-industrial power from wind and water; then by coal, now sustainably by wind, solar and nuclear. Horse-drawn transport replaced by steam and now electricity.
Paris. A new direction.
A day-trip to celebrate a commitment to a Sustainable Future..
Plus the seat of the French government and the venue of the Paris Agreement.
Finally, a suggested return route to Newhaven via Rouen
Chapter & verse on the back story.
What is this ‘Age of Carbon Fuels‘? ?
A patent issued in London gave James Watt the confidence to install the world’s first efficient steam engine 250 years ago. It lit the touch paper on the Industrial Revolution that propelled us forward from the basic technologies of the Pre-Industrial age. Through it we have the wherewithal to move on to a future that is less damaging, more Sustainable and has far less need to exploit carbon fuels to progress. If we have the will.
A bit of history
1712 Steam power arrives.
Cornish tin and copper had been valued since Phoenician times. But now the miners were following seams miles out under the sea bed. Flooding was one challenge, getting miners down to the seams was another – horse-powered treadmills could no longer keep up. Dartmouth Ironmonger/engineer/inventor Thomas Newcomen knew this well. He also knew of Savery’s experiments with steam. He designed the first working engine – a piston drew steam up into a cylinder. Water was then injected, the steam collapsed, drawing the piston back down. Clunky, slow, costly to run – no more than 12 strokes a minute, pausing each time while the cylinder was reheated. But if it kept mines from flooding it was worth it. The same problems beset the coal & iron ore mines in the north. The first Newcomen engine was installed at a coal mine in Tipton. It worked. Word got around, over the next 60 years about 100 were installed, mainly in England but also in Europe. Coal and iron started to become more plentiful.
1776 Fossil fuels ignite the Industrial Revolution.
29th April 1769. James Watt was granted patent GB1769/913 “A method of lessening the consumption of steam and fuel in fire engines.” On to 1776, exactly 250 years ago. America declared independence. Jane Austen turned one. Captain Cook started his fateful final voyage . Just as tumultuous as all that, James Watt installed the world’s first economically viable beam engine for the Carron company, near Falkirk. Soon, with Boulton’s gearing, it delivered rotary power.
This disruptor triggered the Industrial Revolution. By collapsing the steam in a separate condenser the piston and cylinder stayed hot, ready for the next steam charge. The condenser was kept cool ready to cause the next steam collapse. It needed half the coal to do the same work as Newcomen’s. It was a big advance.
Did that halve the demand for coal? Not a bit. Boulton added epicyclic gearing to the nodding beam. Watt coined the term ‘horsepower’ to convey the potential. Suddenly factory owners no longer had to use ponies in treadmills, or build their works where rivers could drive paddle wheels. Millers could grind corn at will, not just while the wind blew. The world moved on from the Pre-Industrial era of wind, water and horse power, into the Age of Fossil Fuels. This fuelled the Industrial Revolution. With a head start on the pack, iron and coal reserves, Britain steamrollered the world, built an empire and briefly stood as the dominant superpower. After WW2 energy demands sky-rocketed as we powered our factories, embraced car travel and centrally heated our homes. Coal then oil and finally gas have been devoured to satisfy our needs.
1838 J M W Turner symbolised the transition from wind power to a coal powered future as the proud, veteran ship-of-the-line “The Fighting Temeraire” was hauled at dusk by a smutty steam tug to the breaker’s yard at Rotherhithe.
What benefits fossil fuels have brought to our world! Today we take for granted skyscrapers, ships, railways, lorries, cars, tractors. Electrical power at the flick of a switch. Potable water at the turn of a tap. Waste gone at the flush of a cistern. Cars to take us daily to distant workplaces. None of these would have been possible without extracting and burning billions of tons of the coal and oil locked away beneath our planet’s surface. The revolution didn’t stop at making things and transporting things. Enormous ships have laid undersea cables across the world. Satellites have been launched. Communications too has been revolutionised.
There has been an unsustainable price to pay for burning all that coal, oil and gas. Approaching 2 Trillion (yes, 2,000,000,000,000) tons of CO2 have spewed into our atmosphere. Unimaginable!. The damage to our world is apparent. This tour shouts out that we care about the world we bequeath to future generations.
Our hunger for energy.
Terrawatt hrs per annum.
Today our world supports a population 10 times greater than it was at the time of Watt’s 1776 engine, with immeasurably better living standards. But burning fossil fuels releases stored carbon, it reverts to its origins as atmospheric CO2. That’s destabilising our weather. It’s time to draw the curtain on the age of carbon. Paradoxically it’s our very exploitation of those fossil-fuels that has brought us the ability to take the next step and leave them behind.
2016 A commitment to move on.
Nuclear power stations, wind & solar farms, hydro-electrics, tidal barrages, electric trains & cars – once unimaginable. all realistic now – if we have the will to get on with it. April 22nd (‘Earth Day’) 2016 saw the nations of the world sign up to the Paris Agreement on climate change.
2026. Progress?
- We’re 250 years on from the first steam engine, time enough to take stock.
- 10 years on from the Paris Agreement, time enough to judge progress.
Power Generation: https://ourworldindata.org/energy-mix
Great progress. Still, it’ll take a long-term effort.
If the trip from London to Paris seems a long haul on a bike, that reminds us that there’s a long long haul ahead to shake off our addiction to carbon. Volcanos erupt then fall silent. Earthquakes rupture then settle. Wars horrify us then grind to an end. As each crisis subsides, our attention is distracted elsewhere. Meanwhile the climatic damage of burnt fossil fuels ratchets steadily up year on year. Have we the bottle to head off problems right now? The persistence? Or will we kick the challenge into the long grass until it becomes so damagingly acute we can stall no longer? Time will tell.
Developing nations have contributed least to climatic problems yet bear the brunt of them, especially the millions of small scale subsistence farmers living on the margins. Small wonder that conflicts and mass migrations result – right now there are over a million Somali and Sudanese refugees camped in Kenya. That presents an enormous challenge on top of the feeding of a native population expected to double within the next couple of decades.
Local farmers are rising to the challenge, upping their game, using social media to freely share their learning as widely as they can. We can listen, encourage, pitch in, enable.
Why bike it?
- Energy efficient transport. One slice of cake fuels a bike for miles.
- Health giving. Stay fit !
- Sustainable. There’s little energy expended making a bike.
- Minimal maintenance. An occasional drop of oil. Not much to go wrong
- Enduring. A 50-year-old bike can roll as easily as it ever did.
Google Maps:
Dieppe to Penly Nuclear Power, back to Dieppe Station. 31km
Rouen to Mantes-la-Ville 106 km 6 hours
Mantes to Le Bourget 71km, 4 hs.
Around Paris