Quotes by Vaclav Smil - Page 2

Harvesting the biosphere is still the most fundamental human activity. Without that, everybody's dead, really. We could do quite well without microchips, or the business site of 'Atlantic Monthly,' the gated communities, Guccis, and high-growth GDP. But we cannot do without harvesting the crops and cutting down the wood.
Vaclav Smil / Professor
Activity
Crops
Cutting
Gdp
Human Activity
Site
Atlantic
Dead
Communities
Fundamental
Harvesting
Monthly
We Cannot
Wood
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This is the question I'm asking: Do Americans live twice as long because they consume twice as much energy as Europeans? Are you people twice as smart as the average Frenchman? Do you enjoy life twice as much as the average Danish guy? What have we gotten for consuming twice as much energy as Europe? What have we gotten in return?
Vaclav Smil / Professor
Danish
Enjoy Life
Twice
Consume
Europeans
Frenchman
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Exceptional circumstances can accelerate the gradual process of energy transitions: France's decision to develop nuclear energy on a grand scale is perhaps the best example of how that can be done by government fiat. In contrast, America's accelerated shift from coal has been driven by an inevitable embrace of cheaper natural gas.
Vaclav Smil / Professor
Accelerate
Cheaper
Circumstances
Coal
Contrast
Decision
Driven
Embrace
Example
France
Gas
Inevitable
Natural
Natural Gas
Nuclear
Nuclear Energy
Process
Scale
Develop
Fiat
Gradual
Perhaps
Shift
Transitions
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Our increasingly electrified, electronic, and data-driven society places steadily rising demand on reliable baseload power - that is, on electricity available 24/7/365. Servers never sleep, nor does air conditioning during hot nights, and in Asia's megacities, subways and electric trains take only brief naps between midnight and 5 A.M.
Vaclav Smil / Professor
Air
Air Conditioning
Asia
Available
Conditioning
Demand
Electric
Midnight
Naps
Rising
Sleep
Brief
Nights
Increasingly
Trains
Nor
Places
Reliable
Steadily
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U.S. industries from steel-making to plastics synthesis are among the world's most energy-efficient; American agriculture is highly productive, as are America's railroads. But for decades, Americans themselves have been living beyond their means, wasting energy in their houses and cars and amassing energy-intensive throwaway products on credit.
Vaclav Smil / Professor
Decades
Railroads
Synthesis
Houses
Industries
Wasting
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Vaclav Smil Quotes - Page 2

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