How the World Really Works Quotes

“The real wrench in the works: we are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years. Complete decarbonization of the global economy by 2050 is now conceivable only at the cost of unthinkable global economic retreat, or as a result of extraordinarily rapid transformations relying on near-miraculous technical advances. But who is going, willingly, to engineer the former while we are still lacking any convincing, practical, affordable global strategy and technical means to pursue the latter? What will actually happen? The gap between wishful thinking and reality is vast, but in a democratic society no contest of ideas and proposals can proceed in rational ways without all sides sharing at least a modicum of relevant information about the real world, rather than trotting out their biases and advancing claims disconnected from physical possibilities.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Obviously, this atomization of knowledge has not made any public decision-making easier.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“De omnibus dubitandum (Doubt everything)”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“To believe that our understanding of these dynamic, multifactorial realities has reached the state of perfection is to mistake the science of global warming for the religion of climate change.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Roger Revelle, an American oceanographer, and Hans Suess, a physical chemist, appraised the process of mass-scale fossil fuel combustion in its correct evolutionary terms: “Thus human beings are now carrying out a large scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future. Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.”47 I cannot imagine what other phrasing could have better conveyed the unprecedented nature of this new reality”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide to Our Past, Present and Future

“Too many countries now rely on food imports, and self-sufficiency in all raw materials is impossible even for the largest countries because no country possesses sufficient reserves of all minerals needed by its economy. The UK and Japan import more food than they produce, China does not have all the iron ore it needs for its blast furnaces, the US buys many rare earth metals (from lanthanum to yttrium), and India is chronically short of crude oil.[91] The inherent advantages of mass-scale manufacturing preclude companies from assembling mobile phones in every city in which they are purchased. And millions of people will still try to see iconic distant places before they die.[92] Moreover, instant reversals are not practical, and rapid disruptions could come only with high costs attached. For example, the global supply of consumer electronics would suffer enormously if Shenzhen suddenly ceased to function as the world’s most important manufacturing hub of portable devices.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Rudolf Diesel deliberately set out to design a new, more efficient, prime mover, and by 1897 his first (heavy and stationary) engine had reached an efficiency of 30 percent, double the performance of the best steam engines.[40] But the first marine engine was installed only in 1912 on Christian X, a Danish freighter. Diesel-powered ships carried much less fuel than coal-fired steamers, but could travel further without refueling because the new engines were nearly twice as efficient—and because, per unit of mass, diesel oil contains nearly twice as much energy. An”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“The greater the reduction of these fossil fuel–based services, the greater the need for the labor force to leave the cities to produce food in the old ways.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“steel, ammonia, cement, and plastics.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Modern economies will always be tied to massive material flows, whether those of ammonia-based fertilizers to feed the still-growing global population; plastics, steel, and cement needed for new tools, machines, structures, and infrastructures; or new inputs required to produce solar cells, wind turbines, electric cars, and storage batteries. And until all energies used to extract and process these materials come from renewable conversions, modern civilization will remain fundamentally dependent on the fossil fuels used in the production of these indispensable materials. No AI, no apps, and no electronic messages will change that.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Ngram Viewer charts provide excellent illustrations of long-term”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“An average inhabitant of the Earth nowadays has at their disposal nearly 700 times more useful energy than their ancestors had at the beginning of the 19th century.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“we will not succeed if our actions are based on myths and misinformation.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Within a few centuries we are returning to the atmosphere and oceans the concentrated organic carbon stored in sedimentary rocks over hundreds of millions of years.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“extrasomatic”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“In two centuries, the human labor to produce a kilogram of American wheat was reduced from 10 minutes to less than two seconds.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Apocalypse and singularity offer two absolutes: our future will have to lie somewhere within that all-encompassing range.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“world’s forests have been a large and persistent carbon sink (storing more than they emit), locking away about 2.4 billion tons of carbon every year between 1990 and 2007, and satellite data for 2000–2017 indicate that one-third of the world’s vegetated area has been greening (showing a significant increase in the average annual green leaf area, confirming that more carbon is now absorbed and stored) and only 5 percent has been browning (showing significant loss of leaves).[”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“the”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Найліпше нашу пасивність і надзвичайну складність проблеми глобального потепління можна проілюструвати таким фактом: тридцять років масштабних міжнародних кліматичних конференцій ніяк не вплинули на викиди CO2.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future

“У 2010-х роках саме джипи стали другою найбільшою причиною зростання викидів CO2, лишивши позаду важку промисловість, вантажоперевезення й авіацію. Обігнала їх тільки електроенергетика. Якщо народна любов до них і далі набиратиме обертів, вони мають шанс компенсувати всі позитивні ефекти понад 100 мільйонів електрокарів, які виїдуть на дороги 2040-го!”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future

“Siempre sobreestimamos los riesgos debidos a experiencias impactantes recientes y subestimamos aquellos a medida que los desastres se borran de nuestra memoria colectiva e institucional.”
― Vaclav Smil, Cómo funciona el mundo: Una guía científica de nuestro pasado, presente y futuro

“SUV ownership began to rise in the US during the late 1980s, it eventually diffused globally, and by 2020 the average SUV emitted annually about 25 percent more CO2 than a standard car.[76] Multiply that by the 250 million SUVs on the road in 2020, and you will see how the worldwide embrace of these machines has wiped out, several times over, any decarbonization gains resulting from the slowly spreading ownership (just 10 million in 2020) of electric vehicles. During the 2010s, SUVs became the second-highest cause of rising CO2 emissions, behind electricity generation and ahead of heavy industry, trucking, and aviation. If their mass public embrace continues, they have the potential to offset any carbon savings from the more than 100 million electric vehicles that might be on the road by 2040!”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“industrial man no longer eats potatoes made from solar energy; now he eats potatoes partly made of oil.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“we are a fossil-fueled civilization whose technical and scientific advances, quality of life, and prosperity rest on the combustion of huge quantities of fossil carbon, and we cannot simply walk away from this critical determinant of our fortunes in a few decades, never mind years.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“2014).”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“Arguments for reshoring many kinds of manufacturing in order to gain greater resilience and reduce unexpected disruptions are not new. The progress of globalization and the actions of multinational companies have been questioned and criticized since the 1990s and, more recently, these sentiments became part of electoral discontent in some countries, most notably in the UK and the US.[98] But as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, a remarkable lineup of institutions began to publish analyses and appeals for the reorganization of global supply chains. The OECD looked at the policy options to build more resilient production networks that would rely less on imports from distant places and that could better withstand global trade interruptions”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

“An abundance of useful energy underlies and explains all the gains—from better eating to mass-scale travel; from mechanization of production and transport to instant personal electronic communication—that have become norms rather than exceptions in all affluent countries.”
― Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going