Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil

Harvesting the Biosphere by Vaclav Smil

The biosphere-the Earth's thin layer of life-dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens. In Harvesting the Biosphere, Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests-from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production-and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being.

In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.

Vaclav Smil has authored 35 books and over 400 papers in the subjects of materials, energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. His research interests are diverse and include a variety of disciplines. He is a Member of the Order of Canada, a member of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy), and a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. Foreign Policy named him one of the top 100 global thinkers in 2010. He was the first non-American to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He has served as a consultant for several US, EU, and international agencies, and has spoken at approximately 400 conferences and workshops in the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Finally, in a Wired.com story in 2013, he had the honor of having Bill Gates say, There is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.