I live in a province where we have the cheapest electricity in North America - indeed, in the Western world - but all of it is perfectly renewable because we have beautiful Manitoba Hydro. Every few tens of kilometers, we… — Vaclav Smil Copy Share Image
Most of the energy in North America is just consuming - Wal-Mart, shopping centres, government offices - or personal consumption: houses, cars, flying to Hawaii, gambling in Las Vegas. We could live affluent lifestyles with half as much energy. — 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
