Éditeurs
- MIT Press Ltd (19)
- Taylor & Francis Ltd (8)
- Gildan Media Corporation (6)
- Penguin Books Ltd (6)
- Oneworld Publications (3)
- Oxford University Press Inc (3)
- Oxford University Press, USA (3)
- Tantor Audio (3)
- Taylor & Francis Inc (3)
- ABC-CLIO (2)
- Bolinda Publishing (2)
- Penguin Putnam Inc (2)
- AEI Press (1)
- Elsevier - Health Sciences Division (1)
- MIT Press (MA) (1)
- Springer Science+Business Media (1)
- Springer-Verlag New York Inc. (1)
Vaclav Smil
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How the World Really Works ; The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin putnam inc
- 10 Mai 2022
- 9780593297063
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"A new masterpiece from one of my favorite authors... [How The World Really Works] is a compelling and highly readable book that leaves readers with the fundamental grounding needed to help solve the world's toughest challenges."-Bill Gates
"Provocative but perceptive . . . You can agree or disagree with Smil-accept or doubt his 'just the facts' posture-but you probably shouldn't ignore him."-The Washington Post
An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible-a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish.
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 foolishness 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, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions.
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 guide 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. -
Numbers Don't Lie ; 71 Things You Need to Know About the World
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin books ltd
- 1 Avril 2021
- 9780241989692
'My favourite author has done it again. Numbers Don't Lie is by far his most accessible book to date, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about the world. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning' Bill Gates
Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy?
From Earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energize them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?
'Smil's title says it all: to understand the world, you need to follow the trendlines, not the headlines. This is a compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going' Steven Pinker
'The best book to read to better understand our world. It should be on every bookshelf!' Linda Yueh
'There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil' Guardian
Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment and public policy. No other living scientist has had more books (on a wide variety of topics) reviewed in Nature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. This is his first book for a more general readership. -
How the World Really Works ; A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin books ltd
- 27 Janvier 2022
- 9780241454404
'There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil' Bill Gates
__________
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.
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'Very informative and eye-opening in many ways' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
'If you are anxious about the future, and infuriated that we aren't doing enough about it, please read this book' Paul Collier, author of The Future of Capitalism -
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This authoritative guide, written by international expert Vaclav Smil, has been fully revised to reveal how every aspect of our existence is governed by one of the most important concepts in our universe.
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How the World Really Works ; A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin books ltd
- 27 Janvier 2022
- 9780241454398
** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **
'Another masterpiece from one of my favorite authors . . . 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. It's a tour de force' BILL GATES
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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.
__________
'Very informative and eye-opening in many ways' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism
'If you are anxious about the future, and infuriated that we aren't doing enough about it, please read this book' Paul Collier, author of The Future of Capitalism -
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Grand Transitions ; How the Modern World Was Made
Vaclav Smil
- Oxford university press inc
- 27 Mai 2021
- 9780190060664
What makes the modern world work? The answer to this deceptively simple question lies in four "grand transitions" of civilization-in populations, agriculture, energy, and economics-which have transformed the way we live. Societies that have undergone all four transitions emerge into an era of radically different population dynamics, food surpluses (and waste), abundant energy use, and expanding economic opportunities. Simultaneously, in other parts of the world, hundreds of millions remain largely untouched by these developments. Through erudite storytelling, Vaclav Smil investigates the fascinating and complex interactions of these transitions. He argues that the moral imperative to share modernity's benefits has become more acute with increasing economic inequality, but addressing this imbalance would make it exceedingly difficult to implement the changes necessary for the long-term preservation of the environment. Thus, managing the fifth transition-environmental changes from natural-resource depletion, biodiversity loss, and global warming-will determine the success or eventual failure of the grand transitions that have made the world we live in today.
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How the World Really Works ; A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin books ltd
- 6 Octobre 2022
- 9780241989678
** THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER **
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 at required global scales 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 is 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. -
Numbers Don't Lie ; 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World
Vaclav Smil
- Penguin putnam inc
- 4 Mai 2021
- 9780143136224
"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author... Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes
From the author of How the World Really Works, an essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world--exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.
Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment--your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy?
From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world--and how all of this affects the planet itself--in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit--all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics--Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true. -
This book offers a comprehensive look at the role of energy in world history, ranging from human muscle-power in foraging societies and animal-power in traditional farming to preindustrial hydraulic techniques and modern fossil-fueled civilization.
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Vaclav Smil offers a comprehensive look at the role of energy in world history, ranging from human muscle-power in foraging societies and animal-power in traditional farming to preindustrial hydraulic techniques and modern fossil-fueled civilization.
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Still the Iron Age ; Iron and Steel in the Modern World
Vaclav Smil
- Elsevier - health sciences division
- 2 Février 2016
- 9780128042335
Although the last two generations have seen an enormous amount of attention paid to advances in electronics, the fact remains that high-income, high-energy societies could thrive without microchips, etc., but, by contrast, could not exist without steel. Because of the importance of this material to comtemporary civilization, a comprehensive resource is needed for metallurgists, non-metallurgists, and anyone with a background in environmental studies, industry, manufacturing, and history, seeking a broader understanding of the history of iron and steel and its current and future impact on society. Given its coverage of the history of iron and steel from its genesis to slow pre-industrial progress, revolutionary advances during the 19th century, magnification of 19th century advances during the past five generations, patterns of modern steel production, the ubiquitous uses of the material, potential substitutions, advances in relative dematerialization, and appraisal of steel's possible futures, Still the Iron Age: Iron and Steel in the Modern World by world-renowned author Vaclav Smil meets that need.
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China's Environmental Crisis: An Enquiry into the Limits of National Development ; An Enquiry into the Limits of National Development
Vaclav Smil
- Taylor & francis inc
- 30 Juin 1993
- 9781563240416
In 1982, Vaclav Smil turned upside down traditional perceptions of China as a green paradise in "The Bad Earth". Updating and expanding its basic arguments and perceptions, this volume is an inquiry into the fundamental factors, needs, prospects, and limits of modern Chinese society.
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The Bad Earth ; Environmental Degradation in China
Vaclav Smil
- Taylor & francis ltd
- 20 Mai 2017
- 9781138182295
Originally published in 1984, Vaclav Smil documents and evaluates China's environmental crisis. This title will be of particular interest for students of Environmental Studies and Development Studies.
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Energy in Nature and Society ; General Energetics of Complex Systems
Vaclav Smil
- Mit press ltd
- 21 Décembre 2007
- 9780262693561
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Global Ecology ; Environmental Change and Social Flexibility
Vaclav Smil
- Taylor & francis ltd
- 21 Octobre 1993
- 9780415098854
Integrating an analysis of both social and environmental needs, this book explores the promises and problems of different paths towards global management in order to deepen our understanding of biospheric change.
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Global Ecology ; Environmental Change and Social Flexibility
Vaclav Smil
- Taylor & francis ltd
- 21 Octobre 1993
- 9780415098861
Integrating an analysis of both social and environmental needs, this book explores the promises and problems of different paths towards global management in order to deepen our understanding of biospheric change.
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Prime Movers of Globalization ; The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines
Vaclav Smil
- Mit press ltd
- 8 Février 2013
- 9780262518765
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Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences
Vaclav Smil
- Oxford university press inc
- 27 Avril 2006
- 9780195168754
Post-WW1 inventions transformed the fundamental technical advances that created the modern world, and added new capabilities ranging from both military uses of nuclear energy to the universal diffusion of microprocessors. This book examines almost all of these technical transformations, and appraises their economic, social, and strategic impacts.
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Feeding the World ; A Challenge for the Twenty-First Century
Vaclav Smil
- Mit press ltd
- 24 Août 2001
- 9780262692717
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In this fully revised and updated edition, world acclaimed scientist Vaclav Smil reveals everything there is to know about nature's most sought-after resource.
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Energy Transitions ; Global and National Perspectives, 2nd Edition
Vaclav Smil
- Abc-clio
- 5 Décembre 2016
- 9781440853241
This book provides a detailed, global examination of energy transitions, supplying a long-term historical perspective, an up-to-date assessment of recent and near-term advances in energy production technology and implementation, and an explanation of why efforts to limit global warming and to shift away from fossil fuels have been gradual.Based on the best international and national statistical sources, the second edition of Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives supplies an in-depth evaluation of how economies and nations around the world are striving to move away from traditional energy sources, the unfolding decarbonization process, and problems with intermittent energies and national transition plans. It supplies readers with a clear introduction to the basic properties of energy systems and key concepts of their appraisal, puts energy transition patterns in long-term historical perspective, and looks at the energy transition in eight of the world's leading economies. The last chapters focus on the advances in the decarbonization of the global energy supply and consider how the energy transition will continue in the coming decades.This fully updated and substantially expanded edition addresses the many new developments affecting energy supply, such as the recent expansion of hydraulic fracturing, oil price fluctuations, the Fukushima nuclear power plant catastrophe, advances in solar and wind generation, adoption of combined cycle gas turbines, and increased availability of electric cars. The coverage highlights the differences in the pace of transitions in various countries, thereby providing a complete and accurate picture of the current state of energy development in different parts of the world. The book serves as an invaluable resource for students as well as for anyone interested in a realistic appraisal of the current state of energy transitions in various nations and regions and the likely future development of the global energy supply.
Presents historical coverage of energy production, energy use, and key technical and economic factors that affect the currently unfolding transitionsOffers insightful analysis of energy transitions on both the national and global scale to explain the possibilities and limitations of the processSupplies a critical appraisal of new renewable conversions that makes clear their advantages and potential benefits as well as their inherent unavoidable limitationsEnables general readers to gain an in-depth understanding of energy transitions from the perspective of an acclaimed scientist with expertise in the fields of energy, environmental and population change, technical innovation, and public policy -
Energy Transitions ; History, Requirements, Prospects
Vaclav Smil
- Abc-clio
- 26 Mai 2010
- 9780313381775
This bold and controversial argument shows why energy transitions are inherently complex and prolonged affairs, and how ignoring this fact raises unrealistic expectations that the United States and other global economies can be weaned quickly from a primary dependency on fossil fuels.
