ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the term Petropolis in a report to the world future council called 'regenerative cities' in 2010. It refers to the fossil fuel-powered city that emerged from the industrial revolution, with all its key functions enabled by daily injections of coal, oil and gas. Deep mining was made possible for the first time by the use of steam pumps, invented by the English engineer Thomas Newcomen in 1712. This enabled access to vast underground stores of metal ores and coal for the first time in history, which was otherwise under water and inaccessible. The connection between the expansion of local urban footprints and the global ecological footprints of cities can be vividly illustrated when examining the example of London. Rural landscapes here increasingly exist for the purpose of meeting the demands of city people for green spaces to visit and for weekend leisure.
