Numbers don't lie: 71 stories to help us understand the modern world - vaclav smil

Vaclav Smil is my favorite author.

Numbers Dont Lie takes everything that makes his writing great and boils it down into an easy-to-read format.

I unabashedly recommend this book to anyone who loves learning.

--Bill Gates, GatesNotes An essential guide to understanding how numbers reveal the true state of our world--exploring a wide range of topics including energy, the environment, technology, transportation, and food production.

Vaclav Smils mission is to make facts matter.

An environmental scientist, policy analyst, and a hugely prolific author, he is Bill Gates go-to guy for making sense of our world.

In Numbers Dont Lie , Smil answers questions such as: Whats worse for the environment--your car or your phone? How much do the worlds cows weigh (and what does it matter)? And what makes people happy? From data about our societies and populations, through measures of the fuels and foods that energize them, to the impact of transportation and inventions of our modern world--and how all of this affects the planet itself--in Numbers Dont Lie , Vaclav Smil takes us on a fact-finding adventure, using surprising statistics and illuminating graphs to challenge conventional thinking.

Packed with fascinating information and memorable examples, Numbers Dont Lie reveals how the US is leading a rising worldwide trend in chicken consumption, that vaccination yields the best return on investment, and why electric cars arent as great as we think (yet).

Urgent and essential, with a mix of science, history, and wit--all in bite-sized chapters on a broad range of topics-- Numbers Dont Lie inspires readers to interrogate what they take to be true.