Combining a brutally realistic assessment of the present and a trust in humanity's ability to change its future, this book is a guiding light in our fight against climate change. Very informative and eye-opening in many ways' Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future. How The World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check-because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

There is perhaps no other academic who paints pictures with numbers like Smil Guardian

In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and ropid elimination unlikely, Drawing on the latest science and tackling sources of misinformation head-on, ultimately Voclay Smill answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopio ahead?

'An author who does not allow facts to be obscured or overshadowed by politics' New York Review of Books