Harvesting the Biosphere

What We Have Taken from Nature

Vaclav Smil (Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba)

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English

MIT Press
21 August 2015

Environmental economics; Nuclear issues

Series: The MIT Press

An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production.

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.

By: Vaclav Smil (Distinguished Professor Emeritus University of Manitoba)
Imprint: MIT Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 178mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9780262528276
ISBN 10: 0262528274
Series: The MIT Press
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 21 August 2015
Recommended Age: From 18
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of forty books, including Energy and Civilization, published by the MIT Press. In 2010 he was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2013 Bill Gates wrote on his website that ""there is no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.""

Reviews for Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature

There's no author whose books I look forward to more than Vaclav Smil.... In Harvesting the Biosphere, Smil gives us as clear and numeric a picture as is possible of how humans have altered the biosphere. —Bill Gates, The Gates Notes