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Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World by [Vaclav Smil]

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Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World Kindle Edition

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'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' 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

Print length

362 pages
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English
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Penguin
Publication date

1 October 2020
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21019 KB
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Book Description

Bill Gates' favourite scientist is on a mission to make facts matter --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

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 text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B084DKCQHG
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin (1 October 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 21019 KB
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Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
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Print length ‏ : ‎ 362 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 1,782 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
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Vaclav Smil

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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.vaclavsmil.com

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Clyve Westerlund

This Story tells of Radical Thinkning

Reviewed in Australia on 19 September 2021

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This is my first ever Vailoa Smil book and I am extremely glad to say that the author really is a radical thinker; such a cool thing. And the several messages elaborated on within this text speaks to his nature in being audacious and stubborn in finding out what nuance really is, and how things really are. To put simply Smil articulates the sophisticated and describes the idea at hand concisely and with relevance, and just deep enough to expound understanding and learning for the reader. This story reminds me yet again of the simple solutions we can implement as a society in fixing and resolving the long lasting issues that plague us. I like what the other critics said about this book, it dispels with the bullshit and that this is very nerdy but in such a cool way. Please believe me haha, coolness and neediness can go together. I “think” I understand why this is one of Bill Gates’ favourite authors. It’s a numbers story and numbers don’t lie, and that IS what this book is about but it ALSO about how it goes levels further and explains: In what context are we viewing such numbers?. I believe I am going to read more of Smil’s books. But in general, this book is short and sweet enough for anyone to place emphasis and appreciation of this the world works in such ever complex nuances.

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Amazon Customer

Does not stick to numbers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2020

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This is a wonderfully interesting read and ordinarily I would have given such a book 4 or 5 stars.

My huge reservation is that the author does not just stick to numbers (unlike the engrossing book The Universe Speaks in Numbers by Graham Farmelo). He is especially vituperative about the UK, see quote below* where personal prejudice seems to show through, and he does not mention the massive advances, both in power contribution and much lowered costs, made in off-shore wind by the UK - contrary to many previous expectations by so-called world experts.

Also, in his measure of countries' worth he does not think to consider the merits of countries simply willing to stand against tyranny: the UK would rate highly in this regard with its prolonged start-to-finish fights against both the Nazis and the Soviet Union. We were, history shows, a very minor player in the defeats of these twin evils but we at least did try and were there slinging a few stones as best we could well before other stronger players "bravely" entered the fight.
There may here be a current relevance with our small efforts to stand out against and call out the EU State, and that may be a reason for his particular animus, as Smil has been I think an adviser to the EU.

*"The UK has become....a deindustrialized and worn out country; another has-been power whose claim to uniqueness rests on having too many troubled princes and on exporting costumed TV series set in fading country mansions staffed with too many servants."

I in fact entirely agree with his withering assessments of both our ghastly princes and our TV series, but his bias shows bleakly though in such subjective statements.

Maybe Covid-19 adds an interesting aspect as well: the one vaccine both conceived and manufactured in the UK may well be the one to "save the world". I am not referring to the financial delusions of a former prime minister here, but the fact that the result of the Oxford/Astra collaboration is by far the easiest to handle (will safely sit in a fridge in a small store in Chad beside the Coca-Cola and root beer cans) and also by far the cheapest ($4 contra the $20-30 cost of the other leading sorts). Also the much maligned, utterly dreadful UK has agreed to make this available to the Developing World at zero profit for ever - no other country has come near to promising that. This will no doubt all just be put down to a massive fluke, but perhaps the author might reasonably consider that the UK has 5 universities in the world's top rank of 20 [QS Rankings], then some balance might just prevail. The entire EU scores NULL points in this particular Eurovision category!

Perhaps Balfour's aphorism (slightly modified) that "there are lies, a significantly higher order of lies, and then there are numbers", might merit further thought.

62 people found this helpful

daniel shillabeer

One-dimensional glancing blows on some very important issues.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2021

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I have no doubt the author knows his stuff, but the lack of depth caused by having too many topics means that the analysis lacks balance and sufficient information on which to base his conclusions. They started to sound more like opinions, and with all due respect to the author, opinions are like belly buttons, everyone has one, but the serve no purpose.
One third of the topics well-argued would, to me, have made more sense. But that's just my opinion, and...

13 people found this helpful

John Hardy

Good in parts, like the curate's egg

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 September 2021

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I found much of this book thought provoking and interesting, and it is an easy read. I thoroughly approve of addressing modern shibboleths with data. In one section however the author simply abandoned relevant data and gave free rein to what I can only describe as bigotry. He finishes his diatribe on Brexit by describing the UK as "another has-been power whose claim to uniqueness rests on having too many troubled princes and on exporting costumed TV series set in fading mansions staffed with too many servants"
He mentions (correctly) that UK GDP per capita is less than Ireland's, but fails to mention that it is more than that of Spain, Italy or Japan

But Brexit was not about economics but about sovreignty. It has already meant that the UK led Europe (and indeed most of the world) in getting covid jabs into arms because the prime minister could ring up Kate Bingham and ask her to take on the job of vaccine Tsar, and could negotiate sensibly with Astra Zeneca. The UK has one of the premier financial centres in the world which we would rather regulate ourselves, and a single Cambridge college (Trinity) has more Nobels (34) than Italy or the Netherlands (20 each). Our Queen probably has more soft power than almost anyone else on earth. Even in sport, Britain won more golds at the recent Tokyo than the next two European powers (Netherlands and France) combined, and a similar pattern is developing in the paralympics. We aren't wonderful but we aren't a has-been either

8 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Excellent on data, questionable on extrapolations

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 April 2021

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This is a fantastic overview of data in a widely ranging areas of the world. Mostly topics are important areas and Smil does not shy away from some technical detail (many other overview books may omit good discussions on devices and manufacturing). I think the strength of the book and author is looking to past and present data, some extrapolations to the future and subjective views are more questionable (however these are not frequent).

Overall, a great book that touches on an impressive range of areas with success, there will always be some disagreements when tackling such a broad area. However, that minor downside does not detract from the book and what it achieves, especially in comparison to books which try to do the same.

6 people found this helpful

Aid

Finally a page turner by Profesor Smil

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 October 2020

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Thank you, thank you, thank you Prof Smil for writing a book I can almost understand and for your humour!
This science of numbers is new to me and the few other books I have read by the same author were extremely hard to understand and very dry. I know science is hard..
It was so nice to find in the book the lively person that I could see in his presentations I could find on YouTube.

4 people found this helpful

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