Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature

by Vaclav Smil

An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens . In Harvesting the Biosphere , Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Environment, Sustainability, History, Ecology, Climate Change

320 pages, Hardcover

First published December 21, 2012

About the author

Vaclav Smil is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst whose work spans energy, environment, food, population, economics, history, and public policy. Educated at Charles University in Prague and later at Pennsylvania State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in geography, Smil emigrated from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1969 following the Soviet invasion, before beginning his long academic career at the University of Manitoba in 1972. Over the decades he established himself as a leading voice on global energy systems, environmental change, and economic development, with particular attention to China. Smil has consistently argued that transitions to renewable energy will be gradual rather than rapid, emphasizing the persistence of coal, oil, and natural gas and highlighting the difficulties of decarbonizing critical industries such as steel, cement, ammonia, and plastics. He has also been skeptical of indefinite economic growth, suggesting that human consumption could be sustained at much lower levels of material and energy use. Widely admired for his clear, data-driven analyses, Smil counts Bill Gates among his readers, while colleagues have praised his rigor and independence. Known for his reclusiveness and preference for letting his books speak for him, he has nonetheless lectured extensively worldwide and consulted for major institutions. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada, Smil remains a highly influential public intellectual.

Reviews

[Rhys · Rating 2 out of 5]

Exhaustively researched.

An algal bloom of numbers creating anoxic conditions for prose. Brutal.

[Jani-Petri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and informative, but too much focus on different numbers and their uncertainties... And I say this as a numbers guy.

[Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another interesting, well researched, and informative book from Smil that gives a great quantitative overview of the human impact on the biosphere. Unfortunately this guy is just too prolific to bother with getting an editor, so leaves it to the reader to catch the many typos and to construct their own summary charts of his scattered data points.

[Dani Ollé · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a study of great depth and breadth, offering great insights. I, being a 'numbers' person, found it hard to read because of the continuous change of units and reference concepts. Nevertheless I recommend it for its relevant content.

[Tirath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very data heavy book focusing on phytomass and zoomass incl ocean mass; how we have altered those things in, largely the last 200 years.

Also rubbishes some long standing beliefs about how we cause extinction of other species.
Speaks a lot about the havoc we have created in the ocean's zoomass

Sadly, the book lacks a good dumbing down or lessons that people ought to take away; sure, the last chapter tries to compact the key points in but fails in giving the reader a decent roadmap ahead when it comes to really understanding how we are wasting or what is fundamentally wrong about eating animals even though they are really tasty.

The book does a great job at creating awareness about the human's footprint and irrational consumption.

But yes. a very brilliant book that could use some refinement.

Notes: Yield of crop, population control, temperate forests, ocean's dwindling population, cattle and pigs, human's world.

[Joe Beeson · Rating 3 out of 5]

very in depth review of everything that goes into quantifying humanities harvest of the biosphere. I would highly recommend reading the last chapter, gives a very good, very detailed, but less exhaustive overview of the entire book, highlighting what rules humanity should follow to sustainably follow the earth over the next century

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

How sweet! A moralist book coming from one of the few virtuous who have stopped living off Nature, and now live an excellent life off the tax money. Not only so, but they are also hiring servants and bringing more nephews into this generous life. Better yet: once government starts paying you, the life becomes so that writing a book is the hard labor.

[Marcel Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit like sapiens but dryer and with more numbers