Smil, Vaclav (Energy)
Smil, Vaclav
Vaclav Smil, a Canadian geographer best known for his sweeping, authoritative, and integrated books on the role of energy in human history. General Energetics (1991) is one of the finest descriptions of energy as an integrating concept across academic disciplines, and as a major driver of the evolution of culture and global environmental change. In Enriching the Earth, he examines the effects of higher food production efficiency worldwide. The main focus of the book is on the discovery of ammonia synthesis in 1908 by Fritz Haber, and its commercialization by Carl Bosch (the Haber-Bosch process). Smil also quantified several global biogeochemical cycles, and applied his interdisciplinary approaches to energy, food and environmental affairs of China.
Vaclav Smil is an author for the Encyclopedia of Energy; to view his profile click here, and to view the articles which he contributed to, click here.
