How the World Really Works

How the World Really Works breaks down the physical underpinnings that keep everyday life going, from explaining energy to food production to the material constituents of our cities, and even globalization, risks, climate change, and what it’ll take for humans to have a good future.

They say that money makes the world go round, but actually, it’s energy. Without power in the form of heat and electricity, modern life would come to a screeching halt within days. But Canadians don’t freeze in the winter, and even half of Africa already has internet access.

While there are many forms of energy, from gravitational to chemical to biomass, only 3 kinds constitute basically all global consumption:

Fossil fuels, like oil, coal, and natural gas, which account for 75-80% of humanity’s energy usage, depending on how you measure. Renewables, like solar, wind, and water energy, which make up around 16%. Nuclear power, which is only used for 4% of our energy consumption.

Each form of energy has advantages and disadvantages. Fossil fuels contain a lot of energy and are easy to transport and store. But their emissions harm the planet. Renewables are eco-friendly but fickle. We can’t fully rely on them with current technologies. And nuclear power, while both reliable and planet-sparing, has a bad reputation because of a handful of disasters and worst-case scenarios.

Given the mix of global energy, clearly, we have a long way to go in making heat and electricity sustainable — and while that way is a path we can see, it’ll be neither fast, nor easy, nor cheap, Smil says. Unlike the stuff the world is made of today, which brings me to…

A common criticism of current politicians is that they live in their heads, but we, too, can easily become divorced from reality. We might scroll through the news and think we’ve got the world economy figured out, but if someone questioned us about our environment on a walk around the block, we’d likely have little to show for. Take the parts your neighborhood is made of, for example. Do you know the most common constituents of our material world? There are 4: Concrete, which was invented by the Romans, then lost for 1,000 years, and now makes up half of everything we build, from roads to tunnels and buildings. Steel, which not only reinforces much of the above concrete but also finds application in ships, skyscrapers, machines, train tracks, planes, and many other places. Plastic, which is light but durable and thus used in clothes, electronics, toys, everyday appliances, and pretty much everywhere else. Ammonia, mainly in the form of fertilizer, without which half the world would go hungry. While all of these materials…