Paperback, 336 pages
Published Jan. 22, 2022 by VIKIN.
We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable - the perils of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020 - and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato requires the equivalent of five tablespoons …
We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.
In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable - the perils of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020 - and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato requires the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel oil for its production; and we still lack any commercially viable ways of making steel, ammonia, cement or plastics on the scale required globally without fossil fuels.
Vaclav Smil is neither a pessimist nor an optimist, he is a scientist; he is the world-leading expert on energy and an astonishing polymath. This is his magnum opus and a continuation of his quest to make facts matter. Drawing on the latest science, including his own fascinating research, and tackling sources of misinformation head on - from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky - ultimately Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary masterpiece finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.
Un llibre essencial per entendre la producció dels components essencials de la civilització moderna: energia, aliment, materials... Tot i que mostra cert despreci cap al moviment ecologista, la seva anàlisi deixa clar que la nostra dependència dels combustibles fòssils és tan profunda, que fa dècades qua hauríem d'haver començat la descarbonització. Però som caparruts, eh? També disponible en espanyol.
I got a lot out of [a:Vaclav Smil|5003|Vaclav Smil|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1619861469p2/5003.jpg]'s [b:How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future|56587388|How the World Really Works A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future|Vaclav Smil|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1641444915l/56587388.SY75.jpg|88381378] despite lacking the background to understand fairly large chunks of it. I probably fully understood about 80 percent of it, at best. (That's not a slam on the book but on me. I had to go to summer school one year because I flunked math and squeaked by other years. A large factor in deciding which college to attend was whether or not they required a year of math, as many did when I was applying.)
This book will shatter any notions you might have about getting off fossil fuels in the time frame many hope for and consider feasible. It did for me, and I'm the starry-eyed optimistic type who's …
I got a lot out of [a:Vaclav Smil|5003|Vaclav Smil|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1619861469p2/5003.jpg]'s [b:How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future|56587388|How the World Really Works A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future|Vaclav Smil|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1641444915l/56587388.SY75.jpg|88381378] despite lacking the background to understand fairly large chunks of it. I probably fully understood about 80 percent of it, at best. (That's not a slam on the book but on me. I had to go to summer school one year because I flunked math and squeaked by other years. A large factor in deciding which college to attend was whether or not they required a year of math, as many did when I was applying.)
This book will shatter any notions you might have about getting off fossil fuels in the time frame many hope for and consider feasible. It did for me, and I'm the starry-eyed optimistic type who's been using reusable bags, bicycling and taking mass transit when possible, recycling everything I can, using as little of possible of everything else, and keeping the thermostat low in winter and off or high (usually off) in summer since the early 1980s.
Smil describes what he calls the four pillars of our current civilization. They are: Concrete, plastic, steel and ammonia. I know what you're thinking: Ammonia? Yes, because its synthesis is what has made fertilizing crops possible. Without it, we'd be unable to feed nearly half the people alive today. None of us has spent a day of our lives without all four of those items being a major part of our lives, except maybe ammonia if you fast for a day now and then.
Although Smil may look like the angry uncle you have who denies climate change even now, he is not and he is in favor of taking action. One thing he highlights that would make a huge difference, for example, is drastically reducing the huge amount of food we waste.
This book took me ages to read but it's just 229 pages long, not counting the notes. I usually prefer fiction, but How the World Really Works gave me the kind of insights you can't often get from fiction, and they're just as interesting.
Excerpt:
How soon will we fly intercontinentally on a wide-body jet powered by batteries? News headlines assure us that the future of flight is electric—touchingly ignoring the huge gap between the energy density of kerosene burned by turbofans and today's best lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that would be on board these hypothetically electric planes. Turbofan engines powering jetliners burn fuel whose energy density is 46 megajoules per kilogram (that's nearly 12,000 watt-hours per kilogram), converting chemical to thermal and kinetic energy—while today's best Li-ion batteries supply less than 300 Wh/kg, more than a 40-fold difference. Admittedly, electric motors are roughly twice as efficient energy converters as gas turbines, and hence the effective energy gap is "only" about 20-fold. But during the past 30 years the maximum energy density of batteries has roughly tripled, and even if we were to triple that again densities would still be well below 3,000 Wh/kg in 2050—falling far short of taking a wide-body plane from New York to Tokyo or from Paris to Singapore, something we have been doing daily for decades with kerosene-fueled Boeings and Airbuses.
Like having cold water poured all over your optimism for the immediate future.
Realism and numbers. Well written and very enjoyable.
