caerodyn

Hi, I've joined this forum basically for some expert advice, so please bear with me (I'm not sure if I'm even in the right part). I recently started a thread on the BBC History Message Boards (Ancient and Archaeological) entitled 'Human Advancement Without Fossil Fuel' (regretably BBC don't offer a Science forum proper). 'While on holiday I was wondering how advanced human technology would have come with out coal, gas and oil. It would seem a mass of eras, inventions, appliances and plain old stuff would be wiped out due to their reliance on fossil fuel at some stage of their conception. Would we be able to reach temperatures high enough to produce steel without coal? Would all the lands be bereft of forests, cut down for fire? Which societies would benefit most from this?'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbhistory/F2233812?thread=5824381 In your opinions, is there any theoretical way humans would have found themselves in this position i.e. a world without, or very little, fossil fuel. Because as someone on the thread pointed out 'World without decomposing carbon-based life is a world without carbon-based life, which sort of takes care of the "human advancement" speculation, I think.' Also please feel free to make your own comments on how you think it would have turned out for us. Cheers