Energy and Civilization
A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors.
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64% recommend35% neutral1% critical
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- You are both right and wrong at the same time.
Long time ago when Siemens in Germany was still building nuclear power plants, I was working in the nuclear power plant engineering department. After the year 2022 when the Russia invaded Ukraine, the gas shortages and the following costs hikes renewed my interest energy sector. Why didn't German reverse it's anti-nuclear stance, even with war in Europe?
Was is the general lack of knowledge of physical, technological and economical aspects of energy, both in German population and decision makers?
The political aspect became clearer after reading "Akte Atomausstieg" by Daniel Gräber.
https://www.perlentaucher.de/buch/daniel-graeber/akte-atomau...
Little bit of money from oil and gas industry always helps.
https://correctiv.org/en/latest-stories/2022/10/07/gazprom-l...
https://www.politico.eu/article/robert-habeck-germany-qatar-...
I think solar and wind are interesting technologies, (solar almost magical - turning photons of light inside thin layer of doped silicon into electrons) but by itself insufficient to power modern world. They are intermittent, weather dependent and low density. Yes the sun and wind come free from Sun, the machines that convert the energy, store it and distribute it are not. Minerals have to be mined, machines build, transported, installed and then disposed off.
Recommended reading:
"Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air" by Sir David John Cameron MacKay
Books by Vaclav Smil:
Energy and Civilization: A History
Energy Transitions: Global and National Perspectives
How the World Really Works
"Why Nuclear Power Has Been A Flop" - The Gordian Knot of the 21st Century
There are still big hydrocarbon reserves, gas/oil for atleast 100 years, coal 200 years, at current consumption rates. I fear that, if we don't use the only carbon free high density energy source and cling our hopes to the mirage of renewables, we will transform our atmosphere to hell.
When even the oil and gas giants advertise for renewables, you know that renewables will never replace fossil fuels.
"gas the perfect partner for renewable energies"
https://totalenergies.com/news/news/natural-gas-integral-par...
- There are several books which explore this concept, viewing history through the lens of energy systems available to and utilised by humans.
Vaclav Smil has written two of these, Energy and Civilization (2017) and Energy in World History (1994). They cover much the same ground, though with different emphases.
<https://vaclavsmil.com/book/energy-and-civilization-a-histor...>
<https://vaclavsmil.com/book/energy-in-world-history/>
Manfred Weissenbacher's Sources of Power (2009) more specifically addresses political and military implications of different power systems.
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sources-of-power-9780313356261...>
In the past year there's a new book on the topic, Energy's History: Toward a Global Canon, by Daniela Russ and Thomas Turnbull, though I've yet to read it.
<https://www.sup.org/books/politics/energys-history>
There's a review here: <https://networks.h-net.org/group/reviews/20131545/priest-rus...>.
- Most people lived on the knife's edge of starvation before the application of fossil fuel energy and nitrogen to agriculture in the 20th century. That's why the global population exploded after the introduction of these technologies. Read "Energy and Civilization" by Vaclav Smil. For most of history, it was an open question the crops you grew would even contain more calories than the physical effort it took to grow them. This means you were spending ~90% of your time (or money if you were in a specialized trade) just on getting enough carbs in grain to avoid keeling over. And, your diet was 90% grain with almost no variety.
Were there a lucky few who found an unoccupied niche where there was some surplus for a generation or two? Sure. But pretending like this was commonplace is like pretending that everyone in the 1600's was a nobleman.
> Compared to someone from the 1600s who could eat a gourmet meal prepared by their 10 cooks every night, we are quite oppressed.
- Thanks for the info.
On The Prize, it's really phenomenal, and that's from someone who disagrees pretty strongly with Yergin on his general cozyness to the petroleum industry and enthusiasm for its future prospects. As a history the book is a brilliant work, there's an accompanying PBS/BBC miniseries, and the wealth of information contained (and number of head-turning new-to-me revelations) can't be briefly described. If you're into that sort of thing, I'd also recommend as much of Vaclav Smil as you can stand, though would suggest starting with Energy and Civilization, a look at human history through the lens of energy.
The octane ratings you give are about what I recall from Yergin's description (if that's where I first heard it, again, somewhat vague decade-plus recollection).
My understanding of diesel ignition is somewhat informed by WWII-era triple-expansion steamships, which burned bunker fuel, that requiring a lot of heating (utilising spent steam) just to get it flowing toward the boiler, then again getting toasted immediately before going into the burners. External combustion, obviously, but the challenge of getting a very nonvolatile fuel to burn left an impression. That engine room visit left an impression as well....
Otherwise, appreciate the additional knowledge, it fits pretty well with my own weaker understanding. Interesting especially about cetane. Looking that up, the name comes from Hexadecade, a/k/a C16H34, or a sixteen-chain hydrocarbon (double the carbon-atom count of octane, a/k/a C8H18).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexadecane>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetane_number>
And for octane: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating>
- It's probably more useful to look both at how our modern technological society did evolve, and at groups which are seriously considering existential risk, complexity, and potential paths to a reboot.
Among the latter is the Long Now Foundation, which has proposed a Manual for Civilization (02010):
<https://longnow.org/ideas/manual-for-civilization/>
I've my own disagreements with LNF, but the concept is worth consideration and the effort to compile useful knowlege worth studying for both points of agreement and difference.
The question of how, why, where, and when the Industrial Revolution (writ broadly, ~1700 to present) emerged has filled books. The so-called Needham Question asks why it was the British Isles and not China which saw the IR take off. Needham's exploration of this topic, begun in 1954, has produced 27 books to date and remains underway. Wikipedia's article gives a good overview, as well as the general organisation of the work and its contents to date:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_Civilisation_in_Ch...>
I've been partial to histories of the world through the lens of history, most notably Vaclav Smil's Energy and Civilization: A History (2017) and Energy in World History (1994), and Manfred Weissenbacher's Sources of Power (2009).
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Smil#Books>
<https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/sources-of-power-9780313356278...>
Smil has also looked at many other elements of technological history, material usage, and energy transitions, see the publications section of his Wikipedia bio above.
What's notable is that most of the material and energy ingredients of the modern world have been known since antiquity, but were not, or could not be, usefully employed, for various reasons. There's endless speculation as to why, with theological, technical, scientific, social, political, geographical, and other justifications given. I suspect it's many of these inter-operating, and that the bootstrapping process is a sensitive and delicate one.
Many of these elements are covered in the series the Princeton Economic History of the Western World:
<https://press.princeton.edu/series/the-princeton-economic-hi...>
There are of course other books which touch on this topic (and I'd strongly recommend Polanyi's The Great Transformation), but if you want one-stop shopping over many dimensions of the question, this is an excellent place to start.
My own thinking leads me to believe that there are nine fundamental dynamics to technological mechanisms:
- Fuels
- Materials
- Power transmission and transformation (simple machines, electromagnetic, etc.)
- Process knowledge (technical)
- Causal knowledge (scientific)
- Networks (nodes and links, physical or logical, experience "network effects" and network contagion)
- Systems (feedback)
- Information (input, parsing, storage/retrieval, logic, transmission)
- Hygiene (addressing unintended / unanticipated consequences)
In particular, the availability or discovery of new fuels and materials has typically resulted in widespread societal changes and progress, though also in other areas (e.g., information technologies, from speech to writing to maths to printing to digital IT). At the same time, each mechanism has limitations and consequences which also affect capabilities and impose limits.
By way of outlining a specific answer: the shape of a solution or reboot will depend tremendously on what materials and fuels are available, how they're accessed (our own waste dumps are likely to be major sources moving forward), and the consequences of past and present industrialisation on that landscape. Fundamental requirements of food, housing, and basic production capital will establish general capabilities. Transportation, over land and sea, possibly air, will determine requirements for self-sufficiency or possibilities of trade. Our ability to address basic production and distribution (whether through market or other means) general living conditions within and between specific societies and polities.
I'd additionally strongly recommend the work of William Ophuls and Thomas Homer-Dixon.
- A fantastic deep dive into this topic is Vaclav Smil's book Energy and Civilization: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262536165/energy-and-civilizati...
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