Vaclav Smil (; born December 9, 1943) is a Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of ...

Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, Canada. His interdisciplinary research interests encompass energy, environmental, food,

population Population is a set of humans or other organisms in a given region or area. Governments conduct a census to quantify the resident population size within a given jurisdiction. The term is also applied to non-human animals, microorganisms, and pl ...

, economic, historical and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

studies. He has also applied these approaches to energy, food and environmental affairs of China.

Early life and education

Smil was born during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Plzeň Plzeň (), also known in English and German as Pilsen (), is a city in the Czech Republic. It is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 188,000 inhabitants. It is located about west of P ...

, at that time in the German

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was a partially-annexation, annexed territory of Nazi Germany that was established on 16 March 1939 after the Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945), German occupation of the Czech lands. The protector ...

(present-day

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

). His father was a police officer and his mother a bookkeeper. Growing up in a remote mountain town in the

Plzeň Region Plzeň Region or Plzeňský Region (also known as Pilsen Region; ) is an Regions of the Czech Republic, administrative unit () of the Czech Republic, located in the western part of the historical land of Bohemia and named after the capital, Plz ...

, Smil cut wood daily to keep the home heated. This provided an early lesson in

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a rat ...

and

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

. Smil completed his undergraduate studies and began his graduate work (culminating in the RNDr., an intermediate graduate degree similar to the Anglo-American

Master of Philosophy A Master of Philosophy (MPhil or PhM; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. The name of the degree is most often abbreviated MPhil (or, at times, as PhM in other countries). MPhil are awarded to postgraduate students after completing at leas ...

credential, in 1965) at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague, where he took up to 35 hours of lectures a week, 10 months a year, for five years. "They taught me nature, from geology to clouds," Smil said. After graduation he refused to join the Communist party, undermining his job prospects, though he found employment at a regional planning office. He married Eva, who was studying to be a physician. In 1969, following the

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The in ...

and Eva's graduation, the Smils emigrated to the United States, leaving the country months before a Soviet travel ban shut the borders. "That was not a minor sacrifice, you know?" Smil says. Smil then received his Ph.D. in

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

from the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

in 1971.

Career

In 1972, Smil took his first job offer at the

where he remained for decades, until his retirement. He taught introductory environmental science courses among other subjects dealing with energy, atmospheric change, China, population and economic development.

Position on energy

Smil is skeptical that there will be a rapid transition to clean energy, believing it will take much longer than many predict. 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. Smil noted in 2018 that coal, oil, and natural gas continue to make up 90% of the

primary energy Primary energy (PE) is the energy found in nature that has not been subjected to any human engineered conversion process. It encompasses energy contained in raw fuels and other forms of energy, including waste, received as input to a system. Pri ...

sources used in the world. Although renewable energy technologies have improved over time, the global share of energy produced from fossil fuels since 2000 has increased. Smil emphasizes that replacing the use of fossil carbon in the production of primary iron,

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

, and

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic materials composed primarily of polymers. Their defining characteristic, plasticity, allows them to be molded, extruded, or pressed into a diverse range of solid forms. This adaptab ...

is a significant and ongoing challenge in the industrial sector. Together, these industries account for 15% of the world's total fossil fuel consumption. Smil stresses the need for energy prices to reflect their true costs, including greenhouse gas emissions, and promotes a decrease in the demand for fossil fuels through energy-saving measures.

Position on economic growth

Smil believes economic growth has to end, that all growth is logistic rather than

exponential Exponential may refer to any of several mathematical topics related to exponentiation, including: * Exponential function, also: **Matrix exponential, the matrix analogue to the above *Exponential decay, decrease at a rate proportional to value * Ex ...

, and that humans could consume much lower levels of materials and energy.

Reception

Included among Smil's admirers is Microsoft co-founder

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

, who has said: "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

movie." "He's a slayer of bullshit," says David Keith, an energy and climate scientist at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Personal life

His wife Eva is a physician and his son David is an organic synthetic chemist. He lives in a house with unusually thick insulation, grows some of his own food, and eats meat roughly once a week. He reads 60 to 110 non-technical books a year and keeps a list of all books he has read since 1969. He "does not intend to have a cell phone ever." Smil is known for being "intensely private", shunning the press while letting his books speak for themselves. At the University of Manitoba, 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.

Awards and honors

He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; , SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bilingual council of distinguishe ...

(Science Academy) and the recipient of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology in 2000. In 2010, he was named by ''

Foreign Policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

'' magazine to its list of FP Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013, he was appointed by the

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. In the fall of 2013, he was the EADS Distinguished Visitor at the

American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...

. He has been an invited speaker in more than 300 conferences and workshops in the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, has lectured at many universities in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, Europe and

East Asia East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...

and has worked as a consultant for many US,

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and international institutions. His book ''How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going'' was a nominee for the 2022

Balsillie Prize for Public Policy The Balsillie Prize for Public Policy is an annual Canada, Canadian literary award, presented to honour the year's best non-fiction work on public policy issues. Created in 2021, the award is presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada, and sponsored ...

.Cassandra Drudi
"Finalists named for 2022 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy"
''

Quill & Quire ''Quill & Quire'' is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. ''Quill & Quire'' reviews ...

'', September 28, 2022.

Publications

Books

* 2025 : ''How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food''. Viking/Penguin. * 2023 : ''Invention and Innovation: A Brief History of Hype and Failure''. The MIT Press. * 2023 : ''Size: How It Explains the World''. Viking/Penguin. * 2022 : ''How the World Really Works: A Scientist's Guide to Our Past, Present and Future''. Viking/Penguin. * 2021 : ''Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. * 2020 : ''Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need To Know About The World''. Penguin. * 2019 : ''Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities''.

The MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...

. * 2017 : '' Energy and Civilization: A History''. The MIT Press. * 2015 : ''Natural Gas: Fuel for the 21st Century''. Wiley. * 2015 : ''Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses''. The MIT Press. * 2013 : ''Making the Modern World: Materials and Dematerialization''. Wiley. * 2013 : ''Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing''. The MIT Press. * 2013 : ''Should We Eat Meat? Evolution and Consequences of Modern Carnivory''. Wiley. * 2013 : ''Harvesting the Biosphere; What We Have Taken from Nature''. The MIT Press. * 2012 : ''Japan’s Dietary Transition and Its Impacts''. The MIT Press. * 2010 : ''Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines''. The MIT Press. * 2010 : ''Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate''. The AEI Press. * 2010 : ''Energy Transitions: History, Requirements, Prospects''. Praeger. * 2010 : ''Why America Is Not a New Rome''. MIT Press. * 2008 : ''Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years''. The MIT Press. * 2008 : ''Oil: A Beginner's Guide''. Oneworld Publications. * 2008 : ''Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems''. The MIT Press. * 2006 : ''Energy: A Beginner's Guide''. Oneworld Publications. * 2006 : ''Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences''. Oxford University Press. * 2005 : ''Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact''. Oxford University Press. * 2004 : ''China’s Past, China’s Future''. RoutledgeCurzon. * 2003 : ''Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties''. The MIT Press. * 2002 : ''The Earth's Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics and Change''. The MIT Press. * 2001 : ''Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch and the Transformation of World Food Production''. The MIT Press. * 2000 : ''Feeding the World: A Challenge for the 21st Century''. The MIT Press. * 1998 : ''Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization''. The MIT Press. * 1997 : ''Cycles of Life: Civilization and the Biosphere''. Scientific American Library. * 1994 : ''Energy in World History''. Westview Press. * 1993 : ''China's Environment: An Inquiry into the Limits of National Development''. M. E. Sharpe. Winner of the 1995

Joseph Levenson Book Prize Joseph Levenson Book Prize is awarded each year in memory of Joseph R. Levenson by the Association for Asian Studies to two English-language books, one whose main focus is on China before 1900 and the other for works on post-1900 China. According to ...

. * 1993 : ''Global Ecology: Environmental Change and Social Flexibility''. Routledge. * 1991 : ''General Energetics: Energy in the Biosphere and Civilization''. Wiley. * 1988 : ''Energy in China's Modernization''. M.E. Sharpe. * 1987 : ''Energy Food Environment: Realities Myths Options''. Oxford University Press. * 1985 : ''Carbon Nitrogen Sulfur: Human Interference in Grand Biospheric Cycles''. Plenum Press. * 1984 : ''The Bad Earth: Environmental Degradation in China''. M.E. Sharpe. * 1983 : ''Biomass Energies: Resources, Links, Constraints''. Plenum Press. * 1982 : (in collaboration with P. Nachman and T. V. Long, II). ''Energy Analysis in Agriculture: An Application to U.S. Corn Production''. Westview Press. * 1980 : (in collaboration with W. E. Knowland). ''Energy in the Developing World''. Oxford University Press. * 1976 : ''China's Energy: Achievements, Problems, Prospects''. Praeger.

Articles

*
Good Eats
. ''Inference'', vol. 5, no. 1 (December 12, 2019) *
Sputnik at 60
. ''IEEE Spectrum'', September 26, 2017. *
A Skeptic Looks at Alternative Energy
. ''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 ''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was moved to ...

'', 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. "International trade in meat: The tip of the pork chop". ''Ambio'' 36:622–629 (2007). * "The two prime movers of globalization: history and impact of diesel engines and gas turbines". ''

Journal of Global History The ''Journal of Global History'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic history journal covering the study of comparative, world, and global history. It was established in 2006 and is published by Cambridge University Press. The editor-in-chief ...

'', 3:373–394 (2007). * "Global material cycles". ''

Encyclopedia of Earth The ''Encyclopedia of Earth'' (''EoE'') is an electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society. The ''Encyclopedia'' is described as a free, fully searchable collection of articles written by s ...

'', 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 Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

'' 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, November 4–7, 2004. Los Baños (Philippines):

International Rice Research Institute The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) is an international agricultural research and training organization with its headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, in the Philippines, and offices in seventeen countries. IRRI is known for its w ...

, 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). *

Filmography

* '' Surviving Progress'', a 2011 Canadian documentary in which Smil appears * '' Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates'', a 2019

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

Documentary in which Smil appears

References

External links

*
Bill Gates Discusses Energy with Vaclav Smil

Smil on Hummers, Hondas, Meat, Heat: Interview with Andrew Revkin, NYT

Interview with Greg Ross, Scientists' Nightstand

"A Skeptic Looks at Alternative Energy"
by Vaclav Smil,

IEEE Spectrum ''IEEE Spectrum'' is a magazine edited and published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The first issue of ''IEEE Spectrum'' was published in January 1964 as a successor to ''Electrical Engineering''. In 2010, ''IEEE Spe ...

, July 2012
Vaclav Smil as the EADS Distinguished Visitor
at the

This Is the Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading
Wired, 2013/11/25 * Desrochers, Pierre
“The Paradoxical Malthusian. A Promethean Perspective on Vaclav Smil’s Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities (MIT Press, 2019) and Energy and Civilization: A History (MIT Press, 2017).”
Energies 2020, 13 (20): 5306.
Interview in The Guardian
September 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Smil, Vaclav Canadian geographers Czech geographers Canadian science writers Canadian people of Czech descent Charles University alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Living people Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences alumni Sustainability advocates Academic staff of the University of Manitoba 1943 births Historians of technology Czech emigrants to Canada People associated with energy Energy economists Degrowth advocates