1. Background

2. Position on energy

3. Awards and honors

4. Publications
    Books  Articles 

5. See also

6. References

7. External links

Václav Smil (born 9 December 1943) is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst.^[1] He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus^[2] in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 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. His name is pronounced as "vah:tslahf" and "smeel".{{Citation needed|date=May 2018}}

Background

Smil was born during WWII in Plzeň, at that time in the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (present-day Czech Republic).^[3] His father was a police officer and his mother a book keeper.^[3] Growing up in a remote mountain town in the Plzeň Region, Smil cut wood daily to keep the home heated providing an early lesson in energy efficiency and density.^[3]

Smil completed his undergraduate studies at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University in Prague, where he took 35 classes a week, 10 months a year, for 5 years.^[3] "They taught me nature, from geology to clouds," Smil said.^[3] After graduation he refused to join the Communist party, undermining his job prospects, though he found employment at a regional planning office.^[3] He married Eva who was studying to be a physician.^[3] In 1969, following the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and Eva's graduation, the Smils emigrated to the USA, leaving the country months before a Soviet travel ban shut the borders.^[3] "That was not a minor sacrifice, you know?" Smil says.^[3] Over the next two years, Smil completed a doctorate in Geography at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of the Pennsylvania State University.^[3][4] In 1972, he took his first job offer at the University of Manitoba where he remained for decades, until his retirement.^[3] He taught introductory environmental science courses among other subjects dealing with energy, atmospheric change, China, population and economic development.^[3]

Included among Smil's admirers is Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates,^[5] who has read all of Smil's 36 books.^[6] "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next Star Wars movie," Gates wrote in 2017.^[3] "I'll forever be Bill Gates's scientist," Smil ruefully said.^[3]

Smil is known for being "intensely private", shunning the press while letting his books speak for themselves.^[3] At UM, he only ever showed up at one faculty meeting (since the 1980s). The school accepted his reclusiveness so long as he kept teaching and publishing highly-rated books.^[3]

His wife Eva is a physician^[3] and his son David is an organic synthetic chemist.

Position on energy

Smil is sceptical that there will be a rapid transition to clean energy, believing it will take much longer than many predict.^[3] Smil said "I have never been wrong on these major energy and environmental issues because I have nothing to sell," unlike many energy companies and politicians.^[3] "He's a slayer of bullshit," says David Keith, an energy and climate scientist at Harvard University.^[3]

Smil notes that as of 2018, coal, oil, and natural gas still supply 90% of the world's primary energy. Despite decades of growth of renewable energy, the world uses more fossil fuels in 2018 than in 2000, by percentage.^[3]

Awards and honors

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy)^[7] and the recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology in 2000.^[8] In 2010, he was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of FP Top 100 Global Thinkers.^[9] In 2013, he was appointed by the Governor General to the Order of Canada.^[10] In the fall of 2013, he was the EADS Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin.

He has been an invited speaker in more than 300 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, European Union and international institutions.

Publications

Books

• 2017 : Energy and Civilization: A History [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/energy-and-civilization The MIT Press] {{ISBN|9780262035774}}
• 2015 : Natural Gas: Fuel for the 21st Century. Wiley {{ISBN|9781119012863}}
• 2015 : Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/power-density The MIT Press] {{ISBN|9780262029148}}
• 2013 : Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization Wiley {{ISBN|978-1119942535}}
• 2013 : Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing The MIT Press {{ISBN|978-0262019385}}
• 2013 : Should We Eat Meat? Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory Wiley {{ISBN|978-1118278727}}
• 2013 : Harvesting the Biosphere; What We Have Taken from Nature The MIT Press {{ISBN|978-0262018562}}
• 2012 : Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts The MIT Press {{ISBN|978-0313381775}}
• 2010 : Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines The MIT Press Cambridge, 261 p. {{ISBN|978-0-262-01443-4}}
• 2010 : Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate The AEI Press, Washington, D.C., 212p. {{ISBN|978-0-8447-4328-8}}
• 2010 : Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects. Praeger Santa Barabara, CA, 178 p. {{ISBN|978-0-313-38177-5}}
• 2010 : Why America is Not a New Rome MIT Press Cambridge, 322 p. {{ISBN|978-0-262-19593-5}}^[11]
• 2008 : Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xi + 307 p. {{ISBN|978-0-262-19586-7}}
• 2008 : Oil: A Beginner's Guide [https://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/vaclav-smil/oil#.VIXkJPnF_mc Oneworld Publications] {{ISBN|9781851685714}}
• 2008 : Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xi + 480 p.
• 2006 : Energy: A Beginner's Guide [https://www.oneworld-publications.com/books/vaclav-smil/energy#.VIXiPvnF_mc Oneworld Publications] {{ISBN|9781851684526}}
• 2006 : Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences, Oxford University Press, New York, x + 358 p.
• 2005 : Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting Impact, Oxford University Press, New York, xv + 350 p.
• 2004 : China’s Past, China’s Future, RoutledgeCurzon, New York et Londres, xvi + 232 p.
• 2003 : Energy at the Crossroads Global Perspectives and Uncertainties, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xiv + 427 p.
• 2002 : The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics and Change, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xxviii + 360 p.
• 2001 : Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch and the Transformation of World Food Production, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xvii + 411 p.
• 2000 : Feeding the World: A Challenge for the 21st Century, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xxviii + 360 p.
• 2000 : Cycles of Life: Civilization and the Biosphere, Scientific American Library, New York, x + 221 p.
• 1998 : Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization, The MIT Press, Cambridge, xi + 217 p.
• 1994 : Energy in World History, Westview Press, Boulder, xviii + 300 p.
• 1993 : China's Environment: An Inquiry into the Limits of National Development, M. E. Sharpe, Armonk, xix + 257 p. Winner of the 1995 Joseph Levenson Book Prize.
• 1993 : Global Ecology: Environmental Change and Social Flexibility, Routledge, London, xiii + 240 p.
• 1991 : General Energetics: Energy in the Biosphere and Civilization, John Wiley, New York, xiii + 369 p.
• 1988 : Energy in China's Modernization, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, xiv + 250 p.
• 1987 : Energy Food Environment: Realities Myths Options, Oxford University Press, Oxford, ix + 361 p.
• 1985 : Carbon Nitrogen Sulfur: Human Interference in Grand Biospheric Cycles, Plenum Press, New York, xv + 459 p.
• 1984 : The Bad Earth: Environmental Degradation in China, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, xvi + 245 p.
• 1983 : Biomass Energies: Resources, Links, Constraints, Plenum Press, New York, xxi + 453 p.
• 1982 : (in collaboration with P. Nachman and T.V. Long, II) Energy Analysis in Agriculture: An Application to U.S. Corn Production, Westview Press, Boulder, xvi + 191 p.
• 1980 : (in collaboration with W. E. Knowland) Energy in the Developing World, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 386 p.
• 1976 : China's Energy: Achievements, Problems, Prospects, Praeger Publishers, New York, xxi + 246 p.

Articles

• [https://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/sputnik-at-60 "Sputnik at 60,"] by Vaclav Smil, IEEE Spectrum, Posted 26 Sep 2017, 19:00 GMT
• "A Skeptic Looks at Alternative Energy," by Vaclav Smil, IEEE Spectrum, July 2012
• Energy innovation as a process: Lessons from LNG. Master Resource: A Free-Market Energy Blog. January 11, 2010.
• Two decades later: Nikkei and lessons from the fall. The American, December 29, 2009.
• The Iron Age & coal-based coke: A neglected case of fossil-fuel dependence. Master Resource: A Free-Market Energy Blog. September 17, 2009.
• U.S. energy policy: The need for radical departures. Issues in Science and Technology Summer 2009:47-50.
• Long-range energy forecasts are no more than fairy tales. Nature 453:154; 2008.
• Moore’s curse and the great energy delusion. The American 2(6): 34-41; 2008.
• Water news: bad, good and virtual. American Scientist 96:399-407; 2008.
• On meat, fish and statistics: The global food regime and animal consumption in the United States and Japan. Japan Focus, October 19, 2008. .
• James N. Galloway, Marshall Burke, G. Eric Bradford, Rosamond Naylor, Walter Falcon, Ashok K. Chapagain, Joanne C. Gaskell, Ellen McCullough, Harold A. Mooney, Kirsten L. L. Oleson, Henning Steinfeld, Tom Wassenaar and Vaclav Smil. 2007. International trade in meat: The tip of the pork chop. Ambio 36:622-629.
• The two prime movers of globalization: history and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines. Journal of Global History 3:373-394; 2007.
• Global material cycles. Encyclopedia of Earth, June 2, 2007.
• The unprecedented shift in Japan’s population: Numbers, age, and prospects. Japan Focus, May 1, 2007.
• Light behind the fall: Japan’s electricity consumption, the environment, and economic growth. Japan Focus, April 2, 2007.
• 21st century energy: Some sobering thoughts. OECD Observer; 2006.
• Peak oil: A catastrophist cult and complex realities. World Watch 19: 22-24; 2006.
• Naylor, R., Steinfeld, H., Falcon, W., Galloway, J., Smil, V., Bradford, E., Alder, J., Mooney, H. Losing the links between livestock and land. Science 310:1621-1622
• The next 50 years: Unfolding trends. Population and Development Review 31: 605-643; 2005.
• Feeding the world: How much more rice do we need? In: Toriyama K., Heong K.L., Hardy B., eds. Rice is life: scientific perspectives for the 21st century. Proceedings of the World Rice Research Conference held in Tokyo and Tsukuba, Japan, 4–7 November 2004. Los Baños (Philippines): International Rice Research Institute, pp. 21–23.
• The next 50 Years: Fatal discontinuities. Population and Development Review 31: 201-236; 2005.
• Improving efficiency and reducing waste in our food system. Environmental Sciences 1:17-26; 2004.
• {{Refend}}

See also

• Surviving Progress, a 2011 Canadian documentary in which Smil appears

References

External links

• {{official website|http://www.vaclavsmil.com/}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100531082045/http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Learning/Article.aspx?ID=25 Bill Gates Discusses Energy with Vaclav Smil]
• Smil on Hummers, Hondas, Meat, Heat: Interview with Andrew Revkin, NYT
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110611161805/http://www.americanscientist.org/bookshelf/id.714,content.true,css.print/bookshelf.aspx Interview with Greg Ross, Scientists' Nightstand], American Scientist
• "A Skeptic Looks at Alternative Energy" by Vaclav Smil, IEEE Spectrum, July 2012
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20131019120717/http://www.americanacademy.de/home/person/vaclav-smil Vaclav Smil as the EADS Distinguished Visitor] at the American Academy in Berlin
• [https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/11/vaclav-smil-wired/ This Is the Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading], Wired, 2013/11/25

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