This summer, members of Tech It Out studio visited Jungar Banner in Inner Mongolia of China to witness a controlled explosion at Asia's largest coal mine – the Heidaigou coal mine.

For those who live in a modern society, they are remote from the primary form of energy. Most of the energy they use is in the form of electricity, shapeless and soundless. People tend to take energy for granted.

But here in Heidaigou, our team can have a closer look at the concrete and solid form of energy.

Workers here walk on 1,500 tonnes of an explosive called Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (ANFO) and the detonation will move the rock layer under their feet, horizontally into a nearby deep valley.

With the detonation, coal is extracted from deep inside the Earth's crust.

A kilogram of coal can produce from 3,000 to over 6,000 kilo calories of heat, generating a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Among these, carbon becomes the major source of heat people consume through burning.

Coal is a very common fossil fuel, widely used all over the world. According to a report done by BP p.l.c., fossil fuels still supply 84% of the world's energy, a leading contributor to the rising level of greenhouse gases.

In the journey to a sustainable future, humanity need to get rid of our fossil fuel thirst. If we want to reach net zero emissions, or carbon neutrality, we must raise the awareness of both reducing carbon emissions and removing those in the atmosphere.

Complementary efforts in these two directions will help us to fade mankind's carbon footprint from the planet.