Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization [Hardcover]

Vaclav Smil (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 1998

Energy is the only universal currency. One of its many forms must be transformed into another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, living things to grow, and civilizations to evolve. Recognition of this universality was one of the great achievements of nineteenth-century science, yet even today there is little literature that tries to view the world broadly through the prism of energy.In this highly original book, ecologist Vaclav Smil takes the principle of universality seriously, presenting a comprehensive and integrated survey of all the forms of energy that shape our world, from the sun to the human body, from bread to microchips. Written in a scientifically sophisticated yet accessible style, Energies consists of eighty-two short essays organized under six headings: Sun and Earth, Plants and Animals, People and Food, Preindustrial Societies, Fossil-Fueled Civilization, and Motion and Information. Each essay explains the science of the energy form as well as its implications for the functioning of the universe, life, or human society. Cross-links and summary diagrams allow easy comparisons among the various levels and flows of energy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The energy of solar radiation reaching the earth clocks in at 5,500,000 exajoules, an exajoule being one watt per second taken to 10 to the 18th power. The energy used to strike a typewriter key is 20 millijoules, a millijoule being one watt per second taken to 10 to the negative 3rd power; that keyboard-striking energy is a full order of magnitude larger than the energy a flea expends in hopping from one spot to another. Such is the sort of information that geographer Vaclav Smil delights in presenting in his endlessly interesting handbook of the various energy technologies of nature and culture. "Energy is the only universal currency," Smil writes, but, he notes, it is little understood. Beginning with a grand tour of the solar system and the terrestrial biosphere, and taking into account such matters as the movement and latent heat of waves, Smil moves on to consider the energy of natural food chains, the efficiency of human growth, the energy requirements of agriculture, and the terrible force of modern weapons, among hundreds of other subjects. His heavily illustrated book is one of a kind, and it makes for both entertaining bedside reading and a highly useful reference. --Gregory McNamee

From Scientific American

"Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, plants to grow, and civilizations to evolve." Thus Smil begins his teeming cross-disciplinary book--"a hybrid," he calls it, "combining a quasi-encyclopedic sweep with the brevity of mini-essays," together with some 300 illustrations, old and new. The 82 essays are grouped under the headings of sun and earth, plants and animals, people and food, preindustrial societies, fossil-fueled civilization, and transportation and information; they cover a broad span of knowledge. Dip into the book anywhere, and you will find a bracing fact or connection. Examples: Total runoff of the earth's rivers averaged 38,000 cubic kilometers during the 1980s, which was more than 5 percent below the mean during the late 17th century. The relation between the energy cost of walking and speed has a clear U shape: the energy cost is highest at a bit less than one meter per second, lowest at about 1.6 and moderate at about 2.4; the energy cost of running, however, is basically constant for speeds between three and 5.5 meters per second. The theoretical capacity of windmills increases with the cube of the wind speed; this in turn is proportional to the height above the ground raised to the power of 0.14; in other words, for a given wind speed at the surface, a machine with a shaft 10 meters above the ground will be only about 60 percent as powerful as one with its shaft 30 meters above the ground. And so on, in a dazzling procession.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 228 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; First Edition edition (December 5, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262194104
• ISBN-13: 978-0262194105
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 8.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,517 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vaclav Smil is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. He completed his graduate studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Carolinum University in Prague and at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of the Pennsylvania State University. His interdisciplinary research interests encompass a broad area of energy, environmental, food, population, economic, historical and public policy studies, and he had also applied these approaches to energy, food and environmental affairs of China.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy) and the first non-American to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He has been an invited speaker in more than 250 conferences and workshops in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe and East Asia and has worked as a consultant for many US, EU and international institutions. His wife Eva is a physician and his son David is an organic synthetic chemist.

Official Website: www.vaslavsmil.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent -- a joule of a book, December 3, 2003

By 

Wignall "Wigs" (Hobart, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization (Paperback)

This is an incredibly easy book to read and understand, amply illustrated by clear graphics. This is not a simple book. It is an encyclopedia of energy, from sunlight, to the biology produced by sunlight, to the energy we gain from using our environment as fuel. Reading through each section (they are clear and cogent) is an exercise in connecting simple inputs with complex outputs. The section on transportation takes you from walking to running to riding the bicycle, all the way to trains, planes, and rocket boosters, all of which developed differently and use energy very differently.

The book is packed with wonderful essays that are well written, ideas that jump off the page, and graphic illustrations that make sense. It's one of those books you can actually flop open at random and get engrossed in all over again. If there's a criticism to this book, it is that it is only a sampler. It could easily have been twice as long.

5.0 out of 5 stars A reference book for energy, July 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization (Hardcover)

This is a fascinating book. It provides a comprehensive and integrated survey of the energies shaping our world. It is filled with diagrams, graphs, maps, drawings and photographs to support the text.

This book can't be described. It has to be experienced: energy production of the sun, global patterns of latent heat flux, a horse's suspensory and check ligaments that allow it to use hardly any additional energy for standing, preindustrial societies, cars and computers and much more.

Use this book for reference and for browsing. Spend an afternoon with a calculator and the figures listed in the tables in this book. You will begin to appreciate the complex relationships involving the energies that shape our world.

3 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a book for the layperson, January 10, 2000

By 

"coolguy2" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization (Hardcover)

I recently bought this item after reading the review for this book. I found this to be a mistake. I am an engineer by trade, and I found myself reading old school books so I could understand what this book was talking about. This book covers a wide variety of information and is difficult to read. This is not a book for the layman.....