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  • How the World Really Works

  • How Science Can Set Us Straight on Our Past, Present and Future
  • By: Vaclav Smil
  • Narrated by: Stephen Perring
  • Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (231 ratings)
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How the World Really Works

By: Vaclav Smil
Narrated by: Stephen Perring
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips, and yet most of us simply don't understand how our world really works. Professor Vaclav Smil is not a pessimist or an optimist, he is a scientist, and this book is a much-needed reality check on topics ranging from food production and nutrition, through energy and the environment, to globalisation and the future. For example, the carbon footprint of meat is well known, but did you know that the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel fuel goes into the production of each greenhouse-grown, medium-size, supermarket-bought tomato? The gap between belief and reality is vast. 

Drawing on the latest science, tackling sources of misinformation head-on and championing a rational, fact-based approach, in How the World Really Works Smil shows, for example, why the planet isn't 'suffocating' (even burning all the planet's fossil fuels would reduce oxygen levels by just 0.25 per cent) and that globalisation isn't 'inevitable' and nor should it be (the stupidity of allowing 70 per cent of the world's rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020). 

Ultimately, Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed, or is a brighter utopia ahead? Compelling, data-rich and revisionist, this wonderfully broad, interdisciplinary masterpiece finds faults with both extremes. Looking at the world through this quantitative lens reveals hidden truths that change the way we see our past, present and uncertain future.

©2021 Vaclav Smil (P)2021 Penguin Audio
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about How the World Really Works

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Nothing new, really tedious

Oil is used in everything, ok? just saved you the need to buy this book.

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8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Slightly depressing take on the world.

I can never understand whether Smil is optimistic or pessimistic about our future.
though he loves debunking some silly ideas so maybe we can give him the benefit of the doubt.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Data-led Observation with a healthy dose of reality.

An neutral approach to quantifying the world we live in and the materials we rely on everyday. Neither pro-cornucopian or fatalistic, but a stark reality check.

It would be fantastic if world leaders dictating our future had even the slightest grasp on this data before composing their rallying-cry’s and furling polarisation.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Hope I never get this cynical

Interesting data based analysis of foundational principles of human existence but increasingly difficult to listen to due to poor understanding and cynical treatment of emerging technologies, particularly AI. Despite the authors claims of not making predictions about the future due to the vast array of possible outcomes making it impossible, he makes increasingly bold prophecies, especially about the near pointlessness of some technological pursuits in the face of fundamental resource and environmental imperatives - a self contradictory position reminiscent of the perfunctory judgement of everyone's 'favourite uncle'. The basic message is don't be dazzled by visions of a better technology enabled future, it's all about Amonia, Concrete, Steel and Plastic - perhaps but and he does not seem to understand the purpose of computer modelling as a means of rapidly exploring multiple future scenarios, constraints and opportunities - pointless bunk apparently.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Surprisingly dull, repetitive and unscientific.
Each chapter could have been one quarter of the length.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

brilliant book

worth a very close listen. Smil debunks all the guff that we read and hear on energy, the climate and human progress

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dull and at risk of embittering scientific expertise

I was hoping for a book about how science is so important to policy making and long term thinking with related examples of success. That is not this book. This book is not easy read. As many other reviewers have said this book overwhelms you with facts but fails to link it to wider narrative. The author is at exposure risk of being perceived to retain intellectual arrogance which just becomes frustrating in the end.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Incorrect info

No nuance, glosses over many things.
very smart guy but speaks matter of factly with things it sounds like he doesn't understand completely.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Insightful, but grumpy

I enjoyed the book, it was highlighting some important facts and misconceptions about the current world. However, even though the author is repeating that he is no optimist, nor pessimist, in some parts of the book the sentiment is quite pessimistic, ignoring some of the recent developments. I also think that the author is underestimating the importance of some technologies like AI and its role in solving some of humanity's problems, eg. quicker finding of vaccines for new species of viruses.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Too reductive for my taste

The title kind of gives it away. Smil wants to paint a broad strokes “realistic“ picture of the world. To me, this kind of abstraction feels flat and not very real. However, I did like the parts about artificial fertilizers and steel, because it was mostly new information for me.

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