Noted Scholar Vaclav Smil Says What We Produce and Use Depends on Where We Are

If you want to understand the future of energy, says Vaclav Smil, you need to think locally—and skeptically. There are no easy fixes or pat global answers in the slog to add energy while reducing carbon emissions—only hard choices, notably about getting people to use energy more wisely, the wide-ranging author and scholar at the University of Manitoba told Wall Street Journal contributing editor Jeffrey Ball. Bill Gates recently wrote this about Mr. Smil, who has penned some three dozen books, writing on subjects as varied as energy, food and the decline of U.S. manufacturing: “There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.” Mr. Smil explored what he sees as the limits of wind and solar power; the profligate use of energy in China; the even more profligate use of energy in the U.S.; and the admirable energy efficiency of Japan. Here are […]

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