Energy in Nature and Society

This is Smil's systematic and analytically unified treatment of energetics, the study of energy flows and their transformations, applied to the biosphere and to civilisation together. He examines the major energy sources, storages, flows and conversions that have shaped both, and uses a small set of fundamental unifying metrics, most notably power density and energy intensity, to provide a single framework in which every segment of the subject can be compared. The coverage runs from planetary energetics, such as solar radiation and geomorphic processes, through bioenergetics, including photosynthesis, to human energetics, including metabolism and thermoregulation. Smil then traces these flows historically, from hunter-gatherer and agricultural societies to modern industrial civilisation, with chapters on heterotrophic conversions, traditional agriculture, preindustrial complexification, fossil fuels, fossil-fuelled civilisation, the energetics of food, and the environmental implications of energy use. A concluding examination looks at general patterns and trends in energy use today and at socioeconomic questions, including the correlations between energy and value, energy and the economy, energy and quality of life, and possible energy futures. Throughout, the book gives more weight to the complexities, peculiarities and counterintuitive outcomes of real-world processes than to abstract models.

Written from the catalogue listing at Blackwell's reproducing the MIT Press publisher's synopsis.

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