How the World Really Works: The Science Behind How We Got Here and Where We're Going

Replicating the post-1990 Chinese experience in those countries would amount to a 15-fold increase of steel output, a more than 10-fold boost for cement production, a more than doubling of ammonia synthesis, and a more than 30-fold increase of plastic syntheses.[105]

(in 1500, at the beginning of the early modern era)—more than 90 percent of all useful mechanical energy was provided by animate power, roughly split between people and animals, while all thermal energy came from the combustion of plant fuels

steel (altogether nearly 200 tons of it for every megawatt of installed generating capacity),

globalization is, and will remain, simply the movement of mass—of raw materials, foodstuffs, finished products, and people—and the transmission of information (warnings, guidance, news, data, ideas) and investment within and among the continents,

chemical to chemical when digesting food; chemical to mechanical when moving muscles; chemical to thermal when burning natural gas; thermal to mechanical when rotating a turbine; mechanical to electrical in a generator; or electrical to electromagnetic as light illuminates

Energy conversions are the very basis of life and evolution.

can humanity realize its aspirations within the safe boundaries of our biosphere?—has

This book is an attempt to reduce the comprehension deficit, to explain some of the most fundamental ruling realities governing our survival and our prosperity.

unprecedented expansion of our understanding of both the physical world and all forms of life.