ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the oft-used trope of Europe's "dependence" on Russia for energy, particularly natural gas, in historical and geographical contexts. It also considers multiple geographic scales to understand linkages: the household, the urban, the regional and the planetary. The chapter argues that energy dependence cannot be understood without understanding energy's mobility, and thus energy and transport — especially, in the case of gas, via pipeline — must be considered in tandem. Europe's reliance on distant carbon is part and parcel of planetary urbanization and an outcome of processes of concentration and extension at multiple temporal and spatial scales. The massive growth of cities across Europe in the 19th century geographically involved both concentration and extension. By the early 20th century, gas was firmly woven into the urban metabolism of most northern European cities. The scaling up of gas provision in the 1960s involved political and economic decisions at several levels.
