How the World Really Works: A Scientist?s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil Get Book
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How the World Really Works: A Scientist?s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future by Vaclav Smil
We have never had so much information at our fingertips, and yet until recently we lived our hermetically-sealed lives at a distance from the complex realities of the physical world. But crises strip away the covers of obfuscation and misdirection to reveal truths. Any ideas of human supremacy were dashed by Covid-19; it was a stark reminder of our limited grasp on reality. If we are to successfully navigate our uncertain future, understanding the inner workings of our modern world is vital. Professor Vaclav Smil is not a pessimist or an optimist, he is a scientist. Championing a rational fact-based approach - and on topics ranging from food production and nutrition, through energy and the environment, to globalization and the future - Smil shows, for example, how our food is inexorably linked to the massive combustion of fossil fuels, that globalization is much older than you think (but not inevitable), and why from horse riding to solar flares we consistently miscalculate risk.