Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil (born 9 December 1943) is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.

• The gap between wishful thinking and reality is vast, but in a democratic society no contest of ideas and proposals can proceed in rational ways without all sides sharing at least a modicum of relevant information about the real world, rather than trotting out their biases and advancing claims disconnected from physical possibilities.
  • Introduction

• Apple! Boy, what a story. No taxes paid, everything made abroad — yet everyone worships them. This new iPhone, there's nothing new in it. Just a golden color. What the hell, right? When people start playing with color, you know they're played out.
  • This Is the Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading in Wired (25 November 2013)