Reconciling Slow Transition & Fast Climate Change | Vaclav Smil

I want to be Vaclav Smil when I grow up.

Vaclav Smil's books are a must if you want to understand energy. "Power Density" is an eye-opener. Energy and Civilizations also important.

It's really heart warming to see so many intelligent, practical minded people looking in depth at the World problems, and finding solutions. We all need to be more conscious.

More people should listen to this guy and read his books.

I’ve watched plenty of hours of Vaclav Smil talking energy to get the jist of it: moving away from carbon within one or two decades is practically impossible. But for a guy so skilled in running the numbers, I’d like to hear his view on the effects of serious temperature rise on the global economy and way of life. Are we screwed or what, Vaclav?

I will believe in fast transition, once we reduced our primary energy consumption of fossil fuels to let's say 70% down from 85 - 90% right now.

If you managed to get most vehicles to run on batteries what would you do with the petrol and diesel fraction of crude oil given that you still need the crude oil fraction which is suited to industrial feedstock ?

This guy is Larry David but a scientist

At 38:00 Vaclav Smil says that one problem with fracking is that the water used to do it is stuck down there forever more maybe 1 km below ground. However when the methane extracted is burned water vapour is formed as part of the combustion reaction. I have seen some calculations saying that more than one litre of water is released per litre of fossil fuel combusted, so over all maybe more water is released into the atmosphere than is lost underground ? How many litres of fracking water are used to release one litre of natural gas ? Is it several litres of water lost to retrieve one litre of gas ? Maybe the bigger problem is the reduction in oxygen in the atmosphere ? Anyway, how much water vapour is formed in the atmosphere from all the hydrocarbons burned, what is the total ? Is this extra water contributions to sea level rise ?

Vaclav Smil for POTUS!

This guy is hilarious. Don't think I've seen someone who's patently an intellectual but so anti-intellectual in the sense he doesn't give a shit about prestige, tradition or politics etc. Someone else compared him to Larry David which I kinda see with the utter irreverence about it all. He's what I imagine old-school scientists were like in the 19th-early 20th century.

Changing the depressing things in life will make a happy life for everyone. Just managing the World better , whether it's food, clothes, shelter, transport, all buissenesses, have to be managed better, making things ecofriendly by creating and consuming less.

Excellent talk, thanks

Great scientist from Czechia, his name is pronounced "Vaatslav" and Smil, not Schmil.

I agree with everything, but cellphones are a great invention in my opinion. And internet. Everybody has encyclopedia, weather reports, vocabulary, books, television, maps with reviews, games, calculator, camera, videocamera, music player, flashlight, sound meter, clock, step counter, bubble air level, ruler, credit card, acess to bank, satelite navigation with speedometer and altitude, synthetic vision that can save your life, when you are in clouds and engine fails, public transit schedule for every line and every city in the world, and many more. All in your pocket in one device

Disposable culture has to be changed. Proper recycling is extremely important.

People can do simple things like not driving an SUV, stop eating Beef etc to make a substantial dent in climate change

Food has been turned into entertainment and commercialized. So many fast food restaurants, as soon as people make better wages they start to over eat. Food should be an easily available necassity, so that all the masses can get food and no one will go hungry. We all have to understand our responsibility to humanity.

38:15 is that the voice of Dennis Prager??

Hydrogen incrementally. For long term (in months) energy storage as we overbuild solar photovoltaics and build up electrolysis facilities and fuel cells to convert back to electrical.