Forbes reports on Sir William Armstrong, a Northumbrian entrepreneur, who predicted the UK’s reliance on coal would end:
Incredibly, such an outcome was predicted at the height of the Industrial Revolution by a Northumbrian entrepreneur who made his vast fortune from coal-powered factories. At a meeting in London in 1863, Sir William (later Lord) Armstrong told fellow British Association for the Advancement of Science members that “England will cease to be a coal-producing country … within 200 years.”
Armstrong understood that renewables would be cheaper energy sources in the long run compared to burning dirty coal, but his was essentially a lone voice. The presumed abundance of coal led to the commissioning of the world’s first coal power plant in 1882. The U.K.’s coal plants have since burned through 4.6 billion tonnes of coal, emitting 10.4Gt of CO2, stresses Dr Sim Evans, deputy editor of Carbon Brief.