In an alternate history work of fiction, what would be a good way to rationalize/justify a world in which there is no usage of fossil fuels?
I think in this alternate history / worldbuilding idea, the physical matter still exists - there is coal, oil, etc, in the earth, but I am wondering if we can come up with a satisfying reason why humans could not make use of anything more efficient than peat in production. Is there a scientific-sounding explanation that could be given to make a world in which coal and oil are useless in industry?
I have been reading “The Future is Degrowth” and “The Origin of Capitalism” and that is what inspired this. The first book says something along the lines of “the capitalism we know, of endless accumulation, is fundamentally a fossil capitalism”. The second book makes a very convincing case that what existed in England centuries before fossil fuels was already distinctly (agrarian) capitalist. Interest in everyone’s thoughts and ideas about how this could be constructed, and what sort of events could play it out in the cradle of capitalism but also worldwide.
BTW I have no idea which countries fit this criteria… Britain isn’t exactly rich in coal but it’s still evidently enough. Any other country and it’s not just an alter-industrialization but a completely different timeline with a POD several centuries in the past… My gut was Bangladesh/India especially since their textile industry was pretty advanced in real life, but surprisingly Bangladesh’s hydro resources are not good. Maybe the Congo as the first industrializer and the south African region following up? I think they fit the criteria well. And the tropical region is probably suitable for not-terrible biofuels. But the POD would have to be like a millennium ago.