ABSTRACT
Early in the twentieth century, steam gave way to the internal combustion engine as the driving force behind globalization. Heat was still the source of energy, but with internal combustion high temperatures were achieved not by an external source but directly by burning a mixture of fuel and air. The internal combustion engine was not without its drawbacks, however, because it also generated considerable waste products (air pollution) and it drew on a fuel supply (petroleum) that was at the time-and still is today-much more limited than coal. The symbiotic connection between the internal combustion engine and petroleum closely resembles the partnership between steam and coal. The internal combustion engine and the automobile changed all that by providing the demand for the creation of a global energy system based on petroleum. As the internal combustion engine increased the demand for gasoline, however, more and more bitumen became available from the petroleum distillation process.
