Carbon Technocracy

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The coal-mining town of Fushun in Northeast China is marked by a vast open pit, excavated since the early twentieth century as various Chinese and Japanese states sought to exploit its "inexhaustible" carbon resources. This depleted mine now stands as a haunting testament to the dreams of a fossil-fueled future and the technologies used to realize those ambitions. Victor Seow's exploration of the Fushun colliery reveals how the fossil fuel economy developed alongside the modern technocratic state. Coal was seen as vital for national wealth and power, prompting bureaucrats, engineers, and industrialists to implement technologies like open-pit mining and hydraulic stowage for intensive energy extraction. However, despite the idealization of fossil fuel machinery, these operations heavily depended on human labor, often leading to invasive labor control, escalating output demands, and the exploitation of the earth. Although Fushun is no longer the coal capital it once was, the aggressive fossil-fueled development that characterized its rise persists. In light of the current planetary crisis driven by carbon consumption, this narrative offers urgent insights into how energy and power have shaped industrial modernity and the world influenced by carbon.