Vaclav Smil quotes

We're a society that demands electricity 24/7. This is very difficult with sun and wind.

All I want is to be left alone to write my books.

Our increasingly electrified, electronic, and data-driven society places steadily rising demand on reliable baseload power - that is, on electricity available 24/7/365. Servers never sleep, nor does air conditioning during hot nights, and in Asia's megacities, subways and electric trains take only brief naps between midnight and 5 A.M.

U.S. industries from steel-making to plastics synthesis are among the world's most energy-efficient; American agriculture is highly productive, as are America's railroads. But for decades, Americans themselves have been living beyond their means, wasting energy in their houses and cars and amassing energy-intensive throwaway products on credit.

The great hope for a quick and sweeping transition to renewable energy is wishful thinking.

Energy use is merely a means to many rewarding ends: economic security, education, health.

If everyone wants to eat like people in Bangladesh, then we would have food coming out of everybody's ears.

Our increasingly electrified, electronic, and data-driven society places steadily rising demand on reliable baseload power - that is, on electricity available 24/7/365. Servers never sleep, nor does air conditioning during hot nights, and in Asia's megacities, subways and electric trains take only brief naps between midnight and 5 A.M.

In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots, and you get social polarization. The whole lower middle class sinks.

The great hope for a quick and sweeping transition to renewable energy is wishful thinking.