It all started during the industrial revolution (at least our own involvement did... plenty of plants and animals had died and gotten compressed into fossil fuels deep below the earth millions of years before we arrived on the scene), and there's no denying that a huge part of our technological success over the past two or three centuries is due to our ability to exploit this natural resource.Still, it's also caused its share of problems, so our relationship is rather strained and complicated. Whose isn't? Anyway, here's a short animated history (RSA style) and what our future might look like depending on the choices we individually and collectively make now.
You know you want to learn more about Nikola Tesla and Michael Faraday...