How the World Really Works

Outline

How the World Really Works (2022) explains the basic realities behind modern life that most people take for granted. Vaclav Smil describes how energy, food production, and key materials such as steel, cement, plastics, and ammonia make our world possible, and how globalisation, risks, and the environment are connected. With facts and numbers, he offers a clear, realistic view of the challenges ahead.

• Modern life rests on basic realities, such as energy and food production, that most people take for granted.
• Steel, cement, plastics, and ammonia are key materials that make the modern world possible.
• Energy, food, materials, globalisation, risks, and the environment are connected, so a change in one affects the others.
• Smil relies on facts and numbers rather than ideology to describe how the world works.
• A clear, realistic view of the facts is the starting point for understanding the challenges ahead.

Vaclav Smil is a Czech-Canadian scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba who studies energy, the environment, food, and technology. He has written more than forty books and is known for his data-driven, realistic analysis. His books include Energy and Civilisation, Numbers Don’t Lie, and How the World Really Works.