Knowingo
The cover of How the World Really Works

How the World Really Works

Vaclav Smil, 2022

A tour of energy, food, materials, globalization, risk and the environment in hard numbers, showing why fossil fuels still feed and build our world and why change will be gradual.

Get the app Read on the web

8 parts, about 29 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Explains how energy, food, materials and trade actually sustain modern life, with the physical numbers behind them
  • Equips you to judge claims about quick decarbonization, global supply chains and everyday risk against real quantities
  • Written by a scientist who calls himself neither pessimist nor optimist and lets measurements settle arguments

Who it is for

  • Climate debaters who want quantities instead of slogans
  • Students heading into energy, engineering or policy work
  • Readers who suspect the information economy hides its physical base

What the summary covers

  1. Introduction: Why the Basics Matter2 min
  2. Energy: Fuels and Electricity4 min
  3. Food: Eating Fossil Fuels4 min
  4. Materials: The Four Pillars4 min
  5. Globalization: Engines, Chips and Politics4 min
  6. Risks: Perception and Measurement4 min
  7. The Environment: Breathing, Drinking, Eating4 min
  8. The Future: Between Apocalypse and Singularity3 min

Recommended by

  • Bill GatesMicrosoft cofounder and philanthropist
    If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read.

About the author

  • Vaclav SmilCzech Canadian scientist, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba
    • Born in 1943 in Plzeň, in what is now the Czech Republic.
    • Earned the RNDr. degree at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University in Prague in 1965.
    • Emigrated to the United States in 1969, after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.
    • Received a Ph.D. in geography from Pennsylvania State University in 1971.
    • Took his first job at the University of Manitoba in 1972 and stayed until retirement.
    • Does interdisciplinary research on energy, environment, population, food and the history of technical advances.
    • Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and recipient of the AAAS Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology in 2000.
    • Appointed to the Order of Canada in 2013.

More books like this