Tác Giả Vaclav Smil

Numbers Don't Lie : 71 Things You Need To Know About The World

'My favourite author has done it again. Numbers Don't Lie is by far his most accessible book to date, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is curious about the world. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning' Bill Gates

Is flying dangerous? How much do the world's cows weigh? And what makes people happy?

From Earth's nations and inhabitants, through the fuels and foods that energize them, to the transportation and inventions of our modern world - and how all of this affects the planet itself - in Numbers Don't Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey?

'Smil's title says it all: to understand the world, you need to follow the trendlines, not the headlines. This is a compelling, fascinating, and most important, realistic portrait of the world and where it's going' Steven Pinker

'The best book to read to better understand our world. It should be on every bookshelf!' Linda Yueh

'There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil' Guardian

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment and public policy. No other living scientist has had more books (on a wide variety of topics) reviewed in Nature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. This is his first book for a more general readership.

How The World Really Works: A Scientist’s Guide To Our Past, Present And Future

* THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *

'Another masterpiece from one of my favorite authors . . . If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read. It's a tour de force' BILL GATES

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. Drawing on the latest science and tackling sources of misinformation head on - from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky - ultimately Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead?

'Very informative and eye-opening in many ways' HA-JOON CHANG, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

'If you are anxious about the future, and infuriated that we aren't doing enough about it, please read this book' PAUL COLLIER, author of The Future of Capitalism

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

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A new masterpiece from one of my favorite authors… [How The World Really Works] is a compelling and highly readable book that leaves readers with the fundamental grounding needed to help solve the world’s toughest challenges.”—Bill Gates

“Provocative but perceptive . . . You can agree or disagree with Smil—accept or doubt his ‘just the facts’ posture—but you probably shouldn’t ignore him.”—The Washington Post

An essential analysis of the modern science and technology that makes our twenty-first century lives possible—a scientist's investigation into what science really does, and does not, accomplish.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn’t inevitable—the foolishness of allowing 70 per cent of the world’s rubber gloves to be made in just one factory became glaringly obvious in 2020—and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, such that any promises of decarbonization by 2050 are a fairy tale. For example, each greenhouse-grown supermarket-bought tomato has the equivalent of five tablespoons of diesel embedded in its production, and we have no way of producing steel, cement or plastics at required scales without huge carbon emissions.

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 guide 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.

NHỮNG CON SỐ BIẾT NÓI -  71 câu chuyện phơi bày sự thật về thế giới chúng ta đang sống

Từ quốc gia, con người cho đến nhiên liệu, thực phẩm, và hơn thế nữa… tất cả đều tạo ra tác động đến mái nhà chung của chúng ta trên Trái đất này. Trong Những con số biết nói, Giáo sư Vaclav Smil sẽ cùng bạn đọc đi vào một chuyến phiêu lưu qua những đồ thị và số liệu thống kê đáng ngạc nhiên để thách thức tư duy quen thuộc.

Trước những thông tin đầy bất ngờ và kỳ thú, chúng ta buộc phải nhận định rõ ràng và cởi mở hơn về những nhân tố trọng yếu của xã hội hiện đại như việc tiêm chủng, tương lai của xe điện, tiềm lực bỏ ngỏ của năng lượng hạt nhân, các lựa chọn dinh dưỡng đa dạng, cũng như viễn cảnh đáng lo ngại về môi trường đứng trước tất cả những yếu tố ấy.

Trên cả, cuốn sách cũng là lời hiệu triệu mạnh mẽ để chúng ta chất vấn những gì mình vẫn cho là đúng trong một xã hội toàn cầu phức tạp. Đúng là những con số biết nói đấy, nhưng chúng truyền đạt sự thật nào?