The empire runs on coal.

Only accumulating: We are trapped in the imperial infrastructure of coal.

Social historian On Barak explores the imperial history and present of carbon in the Middle East and across the energy infrastructure of global capitalism - as an unsustainable system sustained (and shaped) itself on coal, we find our way of life deeply dependent on the destructive logic carbonization.

On is author of the book Powering Empire: How Coal Made the Middle East and Sparked Global Carbonization from University of California Press.