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

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: [New York, New York] : Penguin Books, 2021Description: xvi, 350 pages : illustrations ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780143136224
  • 0143136224
Other title:
  • Numbers do not lie
Subject(s):
Contents:
People : the inhabitants of our world -- Countries : nations in the age of globalization -- Machines, designs, devices : inventions that made our modern world -- Fuels and electricity : energizing our societies -- Transport : how we get around -- Food : energizing ourselves -- Environment : damaging and protecting our world.
Summary: "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.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 909 S641 Available 33111010521967
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Vaclav Smil is my favorite author... Numbers Don't Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format. I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning."--Bill Gates, GatesNotes

From the author of How the World Really Works , an essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world--exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.

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?

From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world--and how all of this affects the planet itself--in Numbers Don't Lie , Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking. Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Don't Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars aren't as great as we think (yet). Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit--all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics-- Numbers Don't Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

People : the inhabitants of our world -- Countries : nations in the age of globalization -- Machines, designs, devices : inventions that made our modern world -- Fuels and electricity : energizing our societies -- Transport : how we get around -- Food : energizing ourselves -- Environment : damaging and protecting our 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.

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