Cosma / Bactra.org, summarizing Pomeranz: "By a lucky geographical accident, Britain — including its economic centers — had ready access to coal, first as an alternative fuel to wood, and then as something which far surpassed wood as a potential source of free energy. The Yangzi was very far indeed from China's (quite large) coal reserves, too far for that to be economical. [...] Thus, an energy-intensive ecological strategy like industrialism was available to Britain in a way it wasn't in any of the comparably-developed parts of East Asia."