Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
life expectancy is predicated on the combination of good health care, good nutrition, and good living conditions,
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
Abandonment of traditional (low-fat, complex carbohydrates) diets in favor of high-energy, high-sugar diets that include more processed foods are, together with more sedentary lifestyles, leading nongenetic contributors to the rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
550,00 t and
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
In 1900 7.2% of the US non-farm labor force worked for government (federal, state, and local), by 1950 that share was 13.3%, and by 2016 it rose only marginally to 14.2%
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
the size of the population residing in the country’s nth largest city is equal to 1/n of the largest city’s total, corresponding to a power law with a coefficient of –1
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
Remarkably, China, although still far from affluent in relative terms, has already joined this group: the inflection year of its average per capita income came in 2012 and the logistic curve indicates an additional 60% gain by 2050 when the country’s per capita economic product would be still only a third of the expected US rate. Many Chinese econo
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three constituents of economic transition—growth, structure, and abundance—
Vaclav Smil • Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made
Higher yields reduced land needed per unit of output and allowed reforestation of previously farmed land, a trend particularly notable in parts of Europe and in Eastern North America