Menasha Public Library (Elisha D. Smith)

Numbers don't lie, 71 stories to help us understand the modern world, Vaclav Smil

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Numbers don't lie

bibliography

1191214293

Vaclav Smil

71 stories to help us understand the modern world

"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?"--, Provided by publisher

People : the inhabitants of our world -- What happens when we have fewer children? -- The best indicator of quality of life? Try infant mortality -- The best return on investment : vaccination -- Why it's difficult to predict how bad a pandemic will be while it is happening -- Growing taller -- Is life expectancy finally topping out? -- How sweating improved hunting -- How many people did it take to build the Great Pyramid? -- Why unemployment figures do not tell the whole story -- What makes people happy? -- The rise of megacities -- Countries : nations in the age of globalization -- The First World War's extended tragedies -- Is the US really exceptional? -- Why Europe should be more pleased with itself -- Brexit : realities that matter most will not change -- Concerns about Japan's future -- How far can China go? -- India vs. China -- Why manufacturing remains important -- Russia and the USA : how things never change -- Receding empires : nothing new under the sun -- Machines, designs, devices : inventions that made our modern world -- How the 1880s created our modern world -- How electric motors power modern civilization -- Transformers - the unsung silent, passive devices -- Why you shouldn't write diesel off just yet -- Capturing motion - from horses to electrons -- From the phonograph to streaming -- Inventing integrated circuits -- Moore's Curse : why technical progress takes longer than you think -- The rise of data : too much too fast -- Being realistic about innovation -- Fuels and electricity : energizing our societies -- Why gas turbines are the best choice -- Nuclear electricity - an unfulfilled promise -- Why you need fossil fuels to get electricity from wind -- How big can a wind turbine be? -- The slow rise of photovoltaics -- Why sunlight is still best -- Why we need bigger batteries -- Why electric container ships are a hard sail -- The real cost of electricity -- The inevitably slow pace of energy transitions -- Transport : how we get around -- Shrinking the journey across the Atlantic -- Engines are older than bicycles! -- The surprising story of inflatable tires -- When did the age of the car begin? -- Modern cars have a terrible weight-to-payload ratio -- Why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet) -- When did the jet age begin? -- Why kerosene is king -- How safe is flying? -- Which is more energy efficient - planes, trains, or automobiles? -- Food : energizing ourselves -- The world without synthetic ammonia -- Multiplying wheat yields -- The inexcusable magnitude of global food waste -- The slow addio to the Mediterranean diet -- Bluefin tuna : on the way to etinction -- Why chicken rules -- (Not) drinking wine -- Rational meat-eating -- The Japanese diet -- Dairy products - the counter-trends -- Environment : damaging and protecting our world -- Animals vs. artifacts - which are more diverse? -- Planet of the cows -- The deaths of elephants -- Why calls for the Anthropocene era may be premature -- Concrete facts -- What's worse for the environment - your car or your phone? -- Who has better insulation? -- Triple-glazed windows : a see-through energy solution -- Improving the efficiency of household heating -- Running into carbon.

71 stories to help us understand the modern worldSeventy-one stories to help us understand the modern worldNumbers do not lie