Growth

From Microorganisms to Megacities

De: Vaclav Smil

Narrado por: Eric Jason Martin

Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.

Smil takes listeners from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities - developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities.

©2019 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2020 Gildan Media

Unmatched detail and analysis

Growth covers such a broad subject matter to make the book have something for everyone interested in how the world works. Chapters on society, economics and the future were most meaningful to me.

Informative and somewhat frightening

At times felt like an overload of information and stats but ultimately I enjoyed how it paints the picture of the danger of our unconstrained consumption and growth on the planet and to ourselves as a species.

Excellent book; condescending narrator

Enlightening, data-rich book with excellent foundations in engineering and history, like Smil's other works.
Must read for those in the arts and social studies (especially economics).
Only negative is the Narrator; he oozes condescension and detracts from the book.

Needs PDF for figures

Quite tough, narrator sounds like a computer. He refers to figures but PDF is not available. This would greatly increase its value

Accompanying PDF

A wealth of well researched detail as we have come to love from Vaclav Smil; however, it would have been great to have the accompanying PDF available.