Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author… Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes From the author of How the World Really Works, an essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world--exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production. Vaclav Smil's mission is to make facts matter. An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates' go-to guy for making sense of our world. In Numbers Don't Lie, Smil answers questions such as: What's worse for the environment--your car or your phone? How much do the world's cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy? From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world--and how all of this affects the planet itself--in Numbers Don't Lie, Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit--all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics--Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true. |
Contents
What happens when we have fewer children? | 3 |
mortality | 9 |
Why its difficult to predict how bad a pandemic | 15 |
Is life expectancy finally topping out? | 24 |
How many people did it take to build | 31 |
What makes people happy? | 39 |
The First World Wars extended tragedies | 53 |
Why Europe should be more pleased | 61 |
The real cost of electricity | 170 |
Shrinking the journey across the Atlantic | 181 |
The surprising story of inflatable tires | 189 |
Modern cars have a terrible weight to payload | 197 |
the jet age begin? | 204 |
How safe is flying? | 212 |
The world without synthetic ammonia | 221 |
The slow addio to the Mediterranean diet | 235 |
Concerns about Japans future | 69 |
India vs China | 77 |
How things | 86 |
Inventions That Made Our Modern World | 95 |
Engines are older than bicycles | 100 |
How the s created our modern world | 101 |
Why you shouldnt write diesel off just | 109 |
From the phonograph to streaming | 117 |
Why technical progress takes | 124 |
Why gas turbines are the best choice | 139 |
Why you need fossil fuels to get electricity | 147 |
The slow rise of photovoltaics | 154 |
Why we need bigger batteries | 162 |
Why chicken rules | 243 |
Rational meat eating | 251 |
Dairy products the counter trends | 259 |
Animals vs artifactswhich are more diverse? | 267 |
The deaths of elephants | 275 |
Concrete facts | 283 |
Who has better insulation? | 291 |
Improving the efficiency of household heating | 299 |
Epilogue | 307 |
Acknowledgments | 327 |
335 | |
Other editions - View all
Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World Vaclav Smil Limited preview - 2021 |
Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Stories to Help Us Understand the Modern World Vaclav Smil No preview available - 2021 |
Common terms and phrases
20th century Africa Ahmed Zewail American annual Anthropocene average batteries began bicycle blades bluefin Boeing bytes Canada capita carbon cars China coal commercial common consumption container ships cost countries decade decline devices diesel engines economic Edison efficiency elec electric motors electricity prices electronic emissions Europe fertility food waste fossil fuels France gas turbine Germany gigajoules global grams heat higher human India infant mortality innovation installed insulation integrated circuits International invented Japan Japanese kilograms kilometers largest less Li-ion light lm/W luminous efficacy machine manufacturing meat Mediterranean diet megacities megawatts meters million tons modern Moore's Law natural gas nearly nitrogen nuclear order of magnitude patent percent petabytes photovoltaic plants population primary energy production PV cells reactors rise share Smil South Korea steam steel storage supply tion today’s tricity United vaccination watt weight wind turbine worldwide