People think 'if only we can put the squeeze on the oil companies' and 'if only we can stop this particular project' and of course I'm all for doing those things. It's great when people get into activism and try to change the world in whatever small way. But the awareness that has to come, and the only way to sustain this battle - because it will be a battle over the long term - is an awareness about the way fossil fuels are deeply embedded in the whole social and economic system.

Energy researcher Simon Pirani explains how fossil fuels power both global capitalism and the climate crisis - from carbon's entrenchment deep within our political, social and economic systems, to the impossibility of addressing global warming without facing the people and forces powering the system that's destroying the planet.

Simon is author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption from Pluto Press.