Vaclav Smil. Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, is author of over 40 outstanding books on energy and on the environment. His latest book, How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We’re Going (2021), is typical of his work – lots of common sense and good historical and technical background supported by hard data. Smil points out that to most people most of what supports their daily lives are mysterious black boxes. Vegetables and meats appear in their markets, but most people have a very dim idea of how they got there. Throwing a switch turns on the lights, but most people have little understanding of the technology or the economics behind the electricity that powers that light.
Smil attempts in this book to remedy that, and in the process to bring some reality to the naïve claims of those who think we can abandon fossil fuels in a decade or two. In fact our world floats on fossil fuels – every tomato grown and delivered to the table has consumed about three tablespoons of fossil fuel in fertilizer, transport, and equipment, and a kilogram of chicken on the plate required about half a wine bottle of fossil fuel to get it there. Eliminate fossil fuel and a majority of the world starves to death.
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