Bill Gates claims that no author will be waiting for his books more. this is Vaclav Smil, born in the Czech Republic, is a scientist who was educated in the USA and lives in Canada. His specialty is ecology and economics, but his passion for numbers.
in The new book “Numbers Don’t Lie”., recently released by Insignis, Smil shows how weak our data intuition is. At the same time, he avoids directive tone and long arguments. Each of the short chapters presents facts – mostly numbers.
It’s a great trip around the world and science breaks. Is the United States an economic power outside Europe? exactly the contrary. Europeans don’t know about it because they don’t know the data. And the numbers don’t lie – the US accounts for 22 per cent and the EU for 24 per cent. The European Union accounts for more of the world’s economic production.
Another puzzle. Which brings you the highest return on investmentAnd often cost less than a dollar? They are vaccines. It usually costs less than one dollar and saves millions in treating infectious diseases. This is the best rate of return in the history of our civilization – no invention can match it.
The numbers for the cars are also surprising. Their engines allow them to develop more and more power, but their weight increases faster. car of the day It has less energy per kilogram of payload than it did a hundred years ago (The regular bike is still unmatched for this conversion.)
Will electric cars save us from a climate catastrophe? Not necessarily, says Smil. And do you know what you can do most beneficial in the fight against global warming? Changing from a car to a bike? Stop eating meat? Close, but no.
Most of the world’s energy consumption is used to heat and cool buildings – up to 40 percent. (28 percent of the transmission rate is second in line). Smil calculates how much solar energy enters windows during the day and how much heat escapes through them at night. The best thing you can do for the climate is to replace your old windows. It is the only energy-saving solution that can be applied to our planet on a large scale.
These seasons are pills In “Numbers Don’t Lie” you’ll find dozens. You will find out why Transformers are the underrated heroes of our civilization (immediately after diesel engines!), Which animals in the world are the most (by their total mass). And even whether the world is more affected by smartphones or cars. Because it’s not that clear at all.
substantially Nothing is clear until we look at the numbers Presents the latest book by Vaclav Smil.
