> Wood -> Coal -> Oil/Gas -> Uranium I’m not sure how these kind of over simplified look at technological progress are useful at all (except as a fun exercise

> Wood -> Coal -> Oil/Gas -> Uranium I’m not sure how these kind of over simplified look at technological progress are useful at all (except as a fun exercise and maybe as a tech tree in a video game). In reality this is never this simplistic, and you actually run the risk of whitewashing history or whole industries. There are still very good use cases for wood energy (and there will be for all foreseeable future) while coal energy is pretty much just legacy at this point and will probably only be used recreationally in a decade or two. Natural gas on the other hand might get a boost with on-site carbon capture technology and might actually end up cleaner [in some cases] then nuclear or renewables + batteries. You also completely skipped hydro-power which has existed longer then coal and is still on a good run.