The use of coal dates back to the Bronze Age, but it was the Industrial Revolution that led to its large-scale use, as the steam engine took over from the water wheel. Today world coal consumption is about 5.3 billion tonnes annually, of which about 75% is used to produce electricity. The region including the China and India uses about 1.7 billion tonnes annually, forecast to exceed 2.7 billion tonnes by 2025. The United States consumes about 1.0 billion tons annually. Almost one-third of all coal used was supplied by China in 2005.

Coal mining causes a number of harmful effects, including the pollution of water sources by sulfuric acid caused by a chemical reaction between water and iron sulfide in the coal. In common with other fossil fuels, the burning coal produces carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides. It also produces sulfur dioxide, the cause of acid rain. Coal contains traces of uranium, thorium, and other naturally-occurring radioactive isotopes which, due to the vast quantities of coal used, cause more radioactive contamination than nuclear power plants. To eliminate CO₂ emissions from coal plants, carbon capture and storage technology has been proposed but has yet to be commercially used.

• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is a documentary film which details Cuba's efforts to recover from the 1990s economic crisis known as the Special Period?

• The Geysers (pictured), north of San Francisco, California, is the largest geothermal power development in the world?

• The International Energy Agency was founded in 1974 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis?

• Indian Railways has started to use Jatropha oil, blended with diesel fuel in various ratios, to power its Diesel locomotives?

• The South Wales Gas Pipeline is the largest high pressure gas pipeline in the United Kingdom?

• The Presbyterian Church (USA) was the first major religious denomination in the world to call on its followers to become carbon neutral?

• There was partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 1979?

• A hybrid electric vehicle achieves better fuel economy than a conventional vehicle without being hampered by the limited range of an electric vehicle?

Fermi was well-known for his simplicity in solving problems. Whenever possible, he avoided complicated mathematics and obtained quick results based on order of magnitude estimates. Fermi also meticulously recorded his calculations in notebooks, and later used to solve many new problems that he encountered based on these earlier known problems.

After accepting the 1938 Nobel Prize in Stockholm, Fermi immigrated to New York with his family to escape the anti-Semitic laws of Fascist Italy, as his wife Laura was Jewish.

After working at Columbia University, Fermi went to the University of Chicago and began studies that led to the construction of the world's first nuclear reactor Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1). The first artificial, self-sustaining, nuclear chain reaction was initiated within CP-1, on December 2, 1942.