Review: How The World Really Works by Vaclav Smil

Nothing stays the same for long in the modern world. Technology, politics and what we need to worry about change rapidly. Five years ago, people were taking action to protest climate change. Now the same people are talking about a polycrisis, a crisis of modern life. There is a climate crisis, a soil quality crisis, a species extinction crisis, a plastics crisis and a forever-chemicals crisis. Oh, and a mental health crisis, a housing crisis and an air quality crisis. Is the modern world really in such a mess? Maybe it would help to understand it better.

Vaclav Smil is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has published over forty books looking at various aspects of how the world works with an emphasis on energy. He is well-placed to help us understand our world.

In the introduction to How The World Really Works, he sets out his thinking. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were Renaissance men who could be said to understand all the knowledge of the world. By the middle of the eighteenth century, by pulling together the right people, all the knowledge of that time could be represented in a meeting. Since then, the various disciplines of science have become so complex and intense that individual scientists spend their whole lives working in a single field. They may be brilliant at what they do, but they have very limited knowledge outside of their specialism. This makes it difficult for scientists to understand the implications of their work beyond their field of knowledge.

This pattern is repeated in everyday life. Trained specialists in one field have no reason to understand what happens elsewhere. So, city-dwelling IT or finance workers may have no idea how food is produced and no need to find out. So long as the supermarket is open, life goes on. Many city-dwellers have never or rarely seen a farm or cows in a field.

This state of affairs is not only sad, but it has profound implications. If a citizen does not understand how electricity, gas and water reach their home, how their clothes are made and by whom, how money works, where food comes from and what the various crises mean, how are they supposed to make decisions and respond to these matters? Crucially, how can they exercise their democratic franchise in a meaningful way? Smil’s book is an attempt to plug that knowledge gap.

Much of the book concentrates on the modern world’s complete dependence on fossil fuels. Early in the book, Smil states an uncomfortable truth. Using fossil fuels destroys the stable climate on which our complex modern society depends. If we don’t stop using fossil fuels, our society will collapse. But because our society is completely dependent on fossil fuels, stopping their use will also cause our society to collapse. What a choice we have!

This is a densely packed book, it is full of facts and statistics. Smil lets the facts speak for themselves and many speak very eloquently. In the USA, the energy used by farmers in preparing the soil, sowing, nurturing and harvesting is about 1 per cent of the energy consumed by the country. But if packaging, transportation, processing, wholesale and retail, away-from-home food preparation and marketing is included, that slice of energy consumption leaps up to 16%. We could buy our food directly from the farm shop and prepare it ourselves. Instead, we tolerate an unwieldy, profit-driven system of consumption that wastes enormous resources.

Smil paints a vivid picture of a relentlessly complex world. There is no polemic, just a clear explanation of the complex relationships that are fundamental to modern life. Whilst Smil refrains from polemic, he is clear that we face enormous problems. His work is to give us a clear picture of the problems. Only when we understand what we are facing, can we create solutions that are equal to the problem. Facts matter.

In his closing remarks, Smil sets out what we really need to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. We require a binding global accord, not individual targets. Progress is impossible without the commitment of the five biggest emitters: China, USA, India, Russia and Japan. These five countries are collectively responsible for over 60% of greenhouse gas emissions. Without their commitment to change, nothing else matters.

The amount of information packed into the 233 pages of this book is astonishing. Another 73 pages of notes and references attest to the meticulous research that informs the content. The content is also convincing. We know the world is complex and Smil’s description rings true as an accurate representation. This book delivers on its intention, providing us with an insight into how this immensely complex world works. How we use this information is up to us.

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