Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World

by Vaclav Smil

The first diesel car, the Mercedes-Benz 260 D, came in 1936. Today, in the European Union, about 40 percent of all passenger cars are diesels but in the US (which has cheaper gasoline) diesel accounts for just 3 percent.

Without the low operating costs, high efficiency, high reliability, and great durability of diesel engines, it would have been impossible to reach the extent of globalization that now defines the modern economy.

For a long time to come—until all energies used to produce wind turbines and photovoltaic cells come from renewable energy sources—modern civilization will remain fundamentally dependent on fossil fuels.