This is the question I'm asking: Do Americans live twice as long because they consume twice as much energy as Europeans? Are you people twice as smart as the average Frenchman? Do you enjoy life twice as much as the… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share Image
Meat eaters don't like me because I call for moderation, and vegetarians don't like me because I say there's nothing wrong with eating meat.… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
America tends to assume Silicon Valley-style innovators can drive quick and transformative changes, but even Silicon Valley's would-be masters of the universe have discovered… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
When you talk in terms of electricity, renewable is very important. Hydro in Manitoba. Hydro in Sweden. Wind in Denmark. Of course, those are… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
...no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth's thin veneer of life, which is ultimately… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
Energy use is merely a means to many rewarding ends: economic security, education, health. — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots, and you get… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
Everyone [in higher education] was what I call drillers of deeper wells. These academics sit at the bottom of a deep well and they… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
There is no reason we can't design a car to last for 35 years instead of six or seven. — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
I've read about 80 books a year for the past 50 years. I come from cultural breeding. I don't have a cellphone. When you… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
“I wrote this book because I wanted to narrate the great, and a truly nation-building, story of US manufacturing—and because I believe that without… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
Apple! Boy, what a story. No taxes paid, everything made abroad—yet everyone worships them. This new iPhone, there’s nothing new in it. Just a… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
A useful analogy is to see traditional societies as relying on instantaneous (or minimally delayed) and constantly replenished solar income, while modern civilization is… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
People shouldn't be living in certain places - on earthquake faults or on flood plains. But they do, and there are consequences. — Vaclav Smil Copy Share
