How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

by Vaclav Smil

Globalization manifests itself in countless quotidian ways. Ships loaded with many thousands of interlocking steel containers are bringing electronic and kitchen gadgets, socks and pants, garden tools and sports equipment from Asia to the shopping centers of Europe and North America, as well as to hawkers of cheap clothes and kitchenware in Africa and Latin America. Giant tankers move crude oil from Saudi Arabia to refineries in India and Japan, and liquefied natural gas from Texas to storage tanks in France and South Korea. Large bulk carriers full of iron ore leave Brazil for China and return empty (as do the oil tankers) to their home ports. Apple’s American-designed iPhones are assembled in a Taiwanese-owned factory (Hon Hai Precision, trading as Foxconn) in Shenzhen, in China’s Guangdong province, from parts coming from more than a dozen countries, and the phones are then distributed globally in a highly choreographed feat of integrated engineering and marketing.[1]