Table Of Content

Cover Page: i Title Page Page: i Copyright Page: iv Contents Page: v Introduction: Why Do We Need This Book? Page: 1 1. Understanding Energy: Fuels and Electricity Page: 13 Fundamental shifts Page: 13 Modern energy uses Page: 18 What is energy? Page: 22 Crude oil’s rise and relative retreat Page: 28 The many advantages of electricity Page: 31 Before you flip a switch Page: 35 Decarbonization: pace and scale Page: 37 2. Understanding Food Production: Eating Fossil Fuels Page: 44 Three valleys, two centuries apart Page: 48 What goes in Page: 51 The energy costs of bread, chicken, and tomatoes Page: 55 Diesel oil behind seafood Page: 62 Fuel and food Page: 64 Can we go back? Page: 65 Doing with less—and doing without Page: 70 3. Understanding Our Material World: The Four Pillars of Modern Civilization Page: 76 Ammonia: the gas that feeds the world Page: 79 Plastics: diverse, useful, troublesome Page: 84 Steel: ubiquitous and recyclable Page: 88 Concrete: a world created by cement Page: 94 Material outlook: old and new inputs Page: 100 4. Understanding Globalization: Engines, Microchips, and Beyond Page: 103 Globalization’s distant origins Page: 106 Wind-driven globalization Page: 108 Steam engines and telegraph Page: 110 The first diesel engines, flight, and radio Page: 113 Large diesels, turbines, containers, and microchips Page: 115 Enter China, Russia, India Page: 122 Globalization’s multiples Page: 125 The long reach of Moore’s law Page: 127 Inevitability, setbacks, and overreach Page: 129 5. Understanding Risks: From Viruses to Diets to Solar Flares Page: 134 Eating as in Kyoto—or as in Barcelona Page: 137 Risk perceptions and tolerances Page: 141 Quantifying the risks of everyday life Page: 144 Voluntary and involuntary risks Page: 149 Natural hazards: less risky than they look on TV Page: 153 Ending our civilization Page: 157 Some lasting attitudes Page: 163 6. Understanding the Environment: The Only Biosphere We Have Page: 168 Oxygen is in no danger Page: 169 Will we have enough water and food? Page: 172 Why the Earth is not permanently frozen Page: 177 Who discovered global warming? Page: 180 Oxygen, water, and food in a warmer world Page: 183 Uncertainties, promises, and realities Page: 188 Wishful thinking Page: 193 Models, doubts, and realities Page: 198 7. Understanding the Future: Between Apocalypse and Singularity Page: 205 Failed predictions Page: 208 Inertia, scale, and mass Page: 214 Ignorance, persistence, and humility Page: 218 Unprecedented commitments, delayed rewards Page: 224 Appendix: Understanding Numbers Page: 230 References and Notes Page: 235 Acknowledgments Page: 304 Index Page: 305 About the Author Page: 321

Description:

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.