‼️ Numbers Don't Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World by Václav Smil ‼️

 58/∞

Rating: ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

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📚 Length: 384 pages

🔊Audiobook: 5 hours 45 minutes

Why you should read this book?

💡 Bill Gates has read every single book written by Smil

💡 Chapters are short, concise and informative

💡 Compares facts and figures related to the current world we live in and puts them into interesting perspective

The very first time I have heard about Václav Smil was when I watched documentary about Bill Gates on Netflix. Bill mentioned that he has read every single book Václav Smil has published so far including the weird ones about Kimchi.  Back then I said: If Bill Gates regularly reads books written by Václav Smil, I want to read them, too. There must be something really special about them.

The author’s name: Václav Smil sounded suspiciously Czech and I guessed he must have Czech origin. I was right. It makes me proud there is a university professor of Czech origin whose books are read by Bill Gates who then based on Smils’ books implements the suggested changes and improves the world. Smil is currently teaching at University of Manitoba in Canada. 🇨🇦 I was lucky to serve in the diplomatic services of my county in Toronto, Canada, but back then I have never heard of Smil and therefore I could not have met with him personally. Pity, maybe next time. 😉🤟

…

During the pandemics I have read and reviewed Smil’s Energy and Civilisation: A History. It is an impressive book, but very long and very complex one. I thought I would be able to get through in a week, but it took me at least two.

Now, Numbers Don't Lie is not that complex and as elaborated as the above mentioned book. It is more of a fun read, for someone who appreciates Smil’s work and is familiar with what he writes about.

Smil is a physics and mathematician. One thing he likes to do is to put numbers into perspective. In the other words compare them on a scale and tell the story behind them.

This book covers all sorts of issues humanity is facing nowadays. Global warming, electric cars and global rise and fall of certain countries even continents.

In this review I will introduce you to some facts and figures I found interesting and let's see if it will motivate you to read an entire book...

Fact No. 1: Rinse and fall of continents 🌍

Europe was dominating the world, because in early 19th century European population represented a huge share in world’s population. It is understandable, because the United Kingdom was the first country to start industrial revolution. Which means the population skyrocketed and the UK was importing its goods all around the world. 

Nowadays, Europe represents only 7% of world’s population, but 24% of worldwide production. Whereas the population of Asia is growing exponentially and it already has the most of the world’s population. It therefore makes sense that Asia is producing most of world’s demand and its population is getting richer.

When I lived in Canada I have heard an interesting statement: Europe is the past, America is the present and Asia is the future. I do agree with this statement. Europe and USA won’t dominate the world forever, not because we are daft, but because we do not have the biggest share of world's population.

India 🇮🇳 vs China 🇨🇳 which will be more powerful in the future?

India is on the way to become the most populous country in the world and surpass China. Although the two countries look the same in this way, they are not the same. 

India is disorganised, dirty, underdeveloped, chaotic, BUT democratic. China is not disorganised, it is dirty (air pollution), it is developing at rapid pace, BUT it is not democratic.

The guess is that India will be the most populous country in the world, but it will fail to surpass China in industrialisation, innovation and progress.

Are electric cars really better for the environment? ⚡️🚘

The answer is no. To compare the numbers correctly we need to see how much CO2 is produced when a car is manufactured and how much CO2 it emits during its lifetime.

While an electric car hasn’t got seemingly much post production CO2 emissions, there are still some and they appear to be rather hidden. An electric car will still need a new set of tyres, maybe a new battery and when you look on brands like Tesla, the car is such a poor build it will have likely 1/2 of its parts changed before it gets scrapped.

Here is important to note that a conventional combustion engine car produces less CO2 when it is being manufactured, but adds a decent amount of CO2 in to the atmosphere over its lifetime.

Another number you have to add when looking on CO2 produced by an electric car is the source of the electricity your electric car runs on. If you live in Norway or Switzerland where the most of the electricity comes from water turbines, your electric car is indeed a cleaner alternative to a combustion engine based car. But if you live in any other country such as China, Poland, India where most of the electricity comes from coal fired power plants, then your electric car is not really a cleaner alternative. 😃

Besides Europe is producing only 3% of the entire CO2 in the world. The way to reduce it, would be to make countries in Asia such as China or India to reduce their production of CO2 and that is very unlikely to happen. Althouth China is on a good way and manages to bring down the emission through strict centralised communist regulation.

So think before you buy an over expensive electric care and flex over your neighbour who doesn't give a fuck about how much money you have! 😂✌️

Exceptionality and why is the USA not as exceptional country as many may think 🦅🇺🇸🚫

The explanation is simple. The USA does not have a free health care. As the matter of fact it is the only developed country in the world, which does not have free health care system.

Same applies to the US education system. I used to be a long supporter of tuition fees in educational system, thinking it makes the educational system more efficient and more pro client based (like the one in the US, UK, Ireland etc). 

Now, I have admit I was wrong, I do come from a country with free educational system 🇨🇿, but the quality is shit. However, there are some countries like Denmark, which have great educational system and the entire education is free.

The numbers from the US show that the US educational system does not produces the smartest kids in the world despite its costs…

Infant mortality as the best indicator of standard of living

Infant mortality is the best indicator of standard of living because the country with low infant mortality has: great health care system, it enables good access to nutrition for infants, its people live in normal living conditions, the people have good access to hygiene and the country has a social support system.

Nutrition is also related to the ability of a country to raise healthy kids in general. This is genuinely indicated by access to cow milk and has been tested in Japan after WWII. The kids were malnourished and had a whole range of developmental issues. When milk was introduced to schools, children who started to drink milk grew up to be higher and healthier. So do not forget to give your kid a glass of milk...

Vaccination 💉

There are some crazy people, who I call conspiracy theorists. They do not like to be vaccinated. In the country I come from vaccination of infants is compulsory. As far as I remember, when I was a kid, any visit to a doctor equaled to a jab. When I was a kid I obviously was not happy about that, but thanks God I got vaccinated. Vaccination is the simplest and the cheapest way to make sure an infant will live to the adult's age. Even though it is considered a standard in all developed countries (okay there are some countries which look developed but are not in reality) on some continents like Africa vaccination is considered a luxury. This causes high mortality (early on and even later on). Vaccination is quite an inexpensive way to make sure, people will live and reach productive age.

This bit is the one Bill Gates has used to evaluate where his money can make the most difference once he kicks the bucket. So if your kids in Africa are getting vaccinated, thank Bill and then to Václav.

Importance of industry 🏭 🏗

Industry is important because no other sectors produce so many well paid jobs. I do come from traditionally strongly industrial country and I argue it is not always true. Employees in Škoda Auto are getting paid at least 1/2 of their German counterparts in VW. But this is only temporary until we have another revolution and nationalise Škoda.

Surprisingly, Smil says that the Republic of Ireland has highest share of industry in the world (32%) per capita. I lived in Ireland for over a year and I did not see any industry. I would be scared to buy anything "made in Ireland" which is likely to be branded as "made in the EU," because Irish are not great when it comes to engineering, manufacturing and assembling stuff. Beside Smil forgets to add that housing market in Ireland is in a desolate state and one simply cannot afford to live there like a human being, because the housing is simply lower quality than on the continent and it is unpayable despite the high salaries.

An electric container ship 🛳

I have to fully admit, this is the first time I have heard about an electric container ship. The ship was built in Norway 🇳🇴 and it is called Yara Birkenland.

The container ships and cruise ships represent a huge challenge for decreasing CO2 emissions. One proper container ship produces the same amount of CO2 emissions as Europe in 3 days. So far, we have failed to find an alternative to crude oil they run on.

Yara Birkenland is used only for short trips between the two Norwegian ports. Beside, it is fully autonomous vessel, which means it is controlled from a computer located in a control tower without the need to be manned. Fancy... 

But to build an electric container ship which would be able to sail from China to Europe is simply not viable as the batteries would take so much space on the ship that there would be little room for the freight.

Smil then goes on the max capacity of batteries we can produce with available materials and concludes that it will take some tome to build a real electric container ship capable of sailing form China to Europe.

Unemployment numbers vs numbers of suicides compared in certain countries

Smil compared bunch of countries, but two of then stuck in my head. The Czech Rep. and Spain. We all know that Spaniards are lazy bastards, haha. 😂 When it will be done? Mañana! (Tomorrow). They have time for everything and they love very slow lifestyle. Lifestyle which is basically incompatible with workaholic lifestyle of Central Europeans (Germany + surrounding countries).

However, Spaniards are three times less likely to commit a suicide than Czechs.

This shows us that GDP is not the best way to measure happiness and chilled lifestyle hand in hand with culture plays its part.

Triple glazed windows

Smil points out that the best way how to decrease CO2 production is to decrease wastage, not to increase the production of energy (el., gas etc,). He suggests that the triple glazed windows have the best ratio of cost & efficiency ratio. He uses Canada as an example. Imagine there is -25 °C and inside of the house is 20 °C. That is 45 °C difference and triple glazed windows save a lot of money not only on your utility bills, but also lots of CO2 produced from energy production.

So think about it when you are renovating / buying / building your new house. 

Kaiser’s Verdict: ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ (highly recommended read)

This was a good one. The book is divided into short, concise and straight to the point chapters. It is similar to Hemingway’s telegraph style or to the way Charles Bukowski used to write, but with numbers and science facts. I honestly enjoyed reading this book. 

In general this particular Smil’s book was not too heavy with numbers - it is not always a case with his book and large amounts of numbers, tend to fry me brain 🧠.

👉 Buy this book! 👈 through my link and help me build this website! 😊

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Feel free to like, share and comment or recommend books/courses you find inspirational yourself. I’m keen to hear about them.

Coming Up Next:

The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity by Toby Ord

Peace 🧘‍♂️✌️🌱