Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 228 pages
• Published by: The MIT Press February 28, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 026269235X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0262692359
• Book Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Review
The energy of solar radiation reaching the earth clocks in at 5,500,000 exajoules, an exajoule being one watt per second taken to ten to the 18th power. The energy used to strike a typewriter key is twenty millijoules, a millijoule being one watt per second taken to ten to the negative 3rd power; that keyboard-striking energy is a full order of magnitude greater than the energy a flea expends in hopping from one spot to another. Such is the sort of information that geographer Vaclav Smil delights in presenting in his endlessly interesting handbook of the various energy technologies of nature and culture. "Energy is the only universal currency," Smil writes, but, he notes, it is little understood. Beginning with a grand tour of the solar system and the terrestrial biosphere, and taking into account such matters as the movement and latent heat of waves, Smil moves on to consider the energy of natural food chains, the efficiency of human growth, the energy requirements of agriculture, and the terrible force of modern weapons, among hundreds of other subjects. His heavily illustrated book is one of a kind, and it makes for both entertaining bedside reading and a highly useful reference. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Scientific American
"Energy is the only universal currency: one of its many forms must be transformed to another in order for stars to shine, planets to rotate, plants to grow, and civilizations to evolve." Thus Smil begins his teeming cross-disciplinary book--"a hybrid," he calls it, "combining a quasi-encyclopedic sweep with the brevity of mini-essays," together with some 300 illustrations, old and new. The 82 essays are grouped under the headings of sun and earth, plants and animals, people and food, preindustrial societies, fossil-fueled civilization, and transportation and information; they cover a broad span of knowledge. Dip into the book anywhere, and you will find a bracing fact or connection. Examples: Total runoff of the earth's rivers averaged 38,000 cubic kilometers during the 1980s, which was more than 5 percent below the mean during the late 17th century. The relation between the energy cost of walking and speed has a clear U shape: the energy cost is highest at a bit less than one meter per second, lowest at about 1.6 and moderate at about 2.4; the energy cost of running, however, is basically constant for speeds between three and 5.5 meters per second. The theoretical capacity of windmills increases with the cube of the wind speed; this in turn is proportional to the height above the ground raised to the power of 0.14; in other words, for a given wind speed at the surface, a machine with a shaft ten meters above the ground will be only about sixty percent as powerful as one with its shaft thirty meters above the ground. And so on, in a dazzling procession. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
This is an incredibly easy book to read and understand, amply illustrated by clear graphics. This is not a simple book. It is an encyclopedia of energy, from sunlight, to the biology produced by sunlight, to the energy we gain from using our environment as fuel. Reading through each section (they are clear and cogent) is an exercise in connecting simple inputs with complex outputs. The section on transportation takes you from walking to running to riding the bicycle, all the way to trains, planes, and rocket boosters, all of which developed differently and use energy very differently. The book is packed with wonderful essays that are well written, ideas that jump off the page, and graphic illustrations that make sense. It's one of those books you can actually flop open at random and get engrossed in all over again. If there's a criticism to this book, it is that it is only a sampler. It could easily have been twice as long.