How the World Really Works

A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future

De: Vaclav Smil

Narrado por: Stephen Perring

Brought to you by Penguin.

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.

© Vaclav Smil 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reseñas de la Crítica

Very informative and eye-opening in many ways (Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism)

It is reassuring to read an author so impervious to rhetorical fashion and so eager to champion uncertainty . . . Smil's book is at its essence a plea for agnosticism, and, believe it or not, humility - the rarest earth metal of all. His most valuable declarations concern the impossibility of acting with perfect foresight. Living with uncertainty, after all, "remains the essence of the human condition." Even under the most optimistic scenario, the future will not resemble the past (Nathaniel Rich)

A grumpy, pugnacious account that, I would argue, is intellectually indispensable in the run up to this year's COP27 climate conference in Egypt. In short, How the World Really Works fully delivers on the promise of its title. It is hard to formulate any higher praise (Simon Ings)

You can agree or disagree with Smil - accept or doubt his 'just the facts' posture-but you probably shouldn't ignore him . . . In Smil's provocative but perceptive view, unrealistic notions about carbon reduction are partly, and ironically, attributable to the very productivity that societies achieved by substituting machine work, powered by fossil fuels, for draft animals and human laborers

This accessible and witty book cuts to the chase of what we need to know (Caroline Sanderson)

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)

"I am neither a pessimist nor an optimist; I am a scientist," Smil writes in the introduction, with typically Smilian swagger. In fact, he is more of a numberist, a polymath with a gift for rigorously crushing complex data into pleasing morsels of information (Pilita Clark)

Smil's meticulously researched words are for anyone who wants his priors reexamined and feathers ruffled (Joakin Book)

Ambitious and eye-opening . . . provides valuable insight as opposed to the agenda-pushing rhetoric commonly found in mainstream scientific literature. Data-rich, informative and eye-opening, How the World Really Works is a captivating read (Lily Pagano)

A compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going (Steven Pinker, on Numbers Don’t Lie)

Great but too many numbers

It's an enjoyable look at the world but for an audio book there are too many numbers given in succession for one example or case. It makes it difficult to grasp the comparisons. You know, there are examples in two orders of magnitude more numerous than in other books. Also, in some cases, the examples are not illustrative to a regular person. You know, the number of words in this audio book is two point seven to the power of six, which is one point seven times more than in other audio books while a regular listener consumes about 5 hours of audio content per week.
It may work in print version, or at least it's easier to ignore or skip, but in audio version it's just too much. Other than that, a great book and food for thought!

Grounded in physical realities, yet accessible

Highly recommended. For once a book on energy and climate that is grounded in the reality of how agriculture, construction and other human activities are really conducted and what these processes require at physical level.

Smil clearly says Earth is warming, which to him is very old news. At the same time, he shows how woefully uninformed many vocal activists and politicians are.

Best book in long time

This book is a must for every person that used phrase common sense i their daily lives

brilliant book to help you think more clearly about the world

the title says it all, brilliant book to help you think more clearly about the world

Tedious

This book is a good primer for aliens visiting planet Earth for the first time. Humans who have been living here for the last few decades and have been paying reasonable attention to what's going on will find the workings described here less revealing.

The first two chapters on energy and food production are interesting. The following chapters get increasingly tedious, as they are largely a rehash of known facts. A good sprinkling of numbers from statistical yearbooks helps the reader maintain some interest. But don't expect to find anything new here, if you've been keeping up with science and non-fiction literature in the past.