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

Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World by Smil, Vaclav. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780241454411.

There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil Bill Gates Is flying dangerous? How much do the worlds cows weigh? And what makes people happy? From earths 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 Dont Lie, Professor Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge lazy thinking. Packed with Well-I-never-knew-that information and with fascinating and unusual examples throughout, we find out how many people it took to build the Great Pyramid, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars arent as great as we think (yet). Theres a wonderful mix of science, history and wit, all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics. Urgent and essential, Numbers Dont Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true in these significant times. Smil is on a mission to make facts matter, because after all, numbers may not lie, but which truth do they convey? Smils 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 its going Steven Pinker The best book to read to better understand our world. Once in a while a book comes along that helps us see our planet more clearly. By showing us numbers about science, health, green technology and more, Smils book does just that. It should be on every bookshelf! Linda Yueh, author of The Great Economists He is rigorously numeric, using data to illuminate every topic he writes about. The word "polymath" was invented to describe people like him Bill Gates Important Mark Zuckerberg, on Energy One of the worlds foremost thinkers on development history and a master of statistical analysis . . . The nerds nerd Guardian There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil Guardian In a world of specialized intellectuals, Smil is an ambitious and astonishing polymath who swings for fences . . . Theyre among the most data-heavy books youll find, with a remarkable way of framing basic facts Wired Hes a slayer of bullshit David Keith, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics & Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University 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.