TYGER
‘Tyger, tyger burning bright, in the forests of the
night…’ flashed through one of my synapses as I lay reading during one of my
nightly journeys through other people’s minds – night-time is when I do my
serious reading – trying to stretch my nous beyond current confines beyond
which lie not only oceans of ignorance, but also hopes and dreams.
Some of these journeys of the mind prove rather
stirring, like coming across Peter Diamandis’ Abundance about which
I already enthused at http://cleanenergypundit.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/if-you-are-at-all-interested-in-energy.html. “You’ve got to have support” is the heading in the latest of his Abundance
Espresso Shots which arrived by email:
“Do those around you inspire or hinder you? In this Abundance
Espresso Shot, I talk about:
·
The people you go through
life with
·
How the people surrounding
you affect your actions
·
How to surround yourself
with a great community
Watch it here. This is
essential viewing!
-Peter “
Then there was Freeman Dyson’s
The Scientist as Rebel [The New York Review of Books,
2006]:
“From Galileo to
today’s amateur astronomers, scientists have been rebels, writes Freeman
Dyson. In their pursuit of Nature’s
truths, they are guided as much by imagination as by reason, and their greatest
theories have the uniqueness and beauty of great works of art.”
to quote from the book’s back cover blurb, where Wired is
also quoted with “Dyson embodies the
ideal of the scientist as iconoclast… Provocative, touching, and always
surprising.” Just the right stuff for Tyger Nights.
As number five of twenty-nine Tyger quality book reviews came this:
As number five of twenty-nine Tyger quality book reviews came this:
“ WHAT A
WORLD !”
“It is refreshing to read a book full of facts about our planet
and the life that has transformed it, written by an author who des not allow
facts to be obscured or overshadowd by politics. Vaclav Smil is well aware of
the political disputes that are now raging abaout the effects of human activities on climate and biodiversity, but in The
Earth’s Biosphere: Evolution, Dynamics, and Change [MIT Press, 2002] he does not
give them more attention than they deserve. He emphasizes the enormous gaps in
our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations, and the superficiality of
our theories. ….”
Dyson’s
2002 review has a Postscript 2006:
“After this
review appeared, Vaclav Smil published anothyer book, Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspecitves and Uncertainties
[MIT
Press, 2003], dealing directly with the
practical issues of energy supply and demand. The new book makes a good complement
to The Earth’s Biosphere, which
describes the larger framework of ecology within which practical policies must
fit. I am gratefu to Smil for sending me
the new book, and sorry that I had not seen it when I wrote the review.”
In
trying to entice you to share my excitement in reading not only Freeman Dyson’s
wide-ranging book reviews, but above all also the books about the biosphere and
energy here mentioned, let me just quote two more sentences; apologies in
advance if you know that already – I certainly have not:
“The
fundamental reason why carbon dioxide abundance in the atmosphere is critically
important to biology is that there is so little of It. A field of corn growing
in full sunlight in the middle of the day uses up all the carbon dioxide within
a meter of the ground in about five minutes. If the air were not constantly stirred by
convection currents and winds, the corn would not be able to grow.”
Neither
had I ever heard of Vaclav Smil or of these books of his which Freeman Dyson finds
so praiseworthy. As one would do, first
call is good old Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaclav_Smil and his website http://www.vaclavsmil.com/. With the lists of achievements and long lists of
books and other publications to be found there I am surprised that Vaclav Smil appears
unknown amongst the many books and general media that are the mainstream of
energy, sustainability, biodiversity discussions on paper or the internet
(could, of course, be due to my ignorance exceeding my awareness of it).
In
any case, three of Smil’s books were ordered, and read (!), immediately after
reading Dyson's review. The resulting Tyger
Nights left me thoroughly flabbergasted
and gobsmacked since I thought I had
known a little about energy, earth, sustainability and related issues, but now
realize after confronting these three
reads alone, that I am at best only an ‘apprentice pundit’.
I can, therefore, do no more than present these books and quote some of the blurb and comment texts from their respective back covers in the hope of engendering a wider readership. In that respect I can only quote another hero of mine – Richard Buckminster Fuller – from the Foreword of his Critical Path [Hutchinson, 1983]:
I can, therefore, do no more than present these books and quote some of the blurb and comment texts from their respective back covers in the hope of engendering a wider readership. In that respect I can only quote another hero of mine – Richard Buckminster Fuller – from the Foreword of his Critical Path [Hutchinson, 1983]:
“My reasons for writing
this book are fourfold:
(A) Because I am convinced that human knowledge
by others of what this book has to say is essential to human survival.
(B) Because of my driving conviction that all of
humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth,
always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly – right
now.
(C) Because I am convinced that humanity’s
fitness for continuance in the cosmic scheme no longer depends on the validity
of political, religious, economic, or social organizations, which altogether
heretofore have been assumed to represent the many.
(D) Because, contrary to (C), I am convinced
that human continuance now depends entirely upon:
a. The intuitive wisdom of each and every
individual.
b. The individual’s comprehensive informedness.
c. The individual’s integrity of speaking and
acting only on the individual’s own within-self-intuited and reasoned
initiative.
d. The individual’s joining action with others,
as motivated only by the individually conceived consequences of so doing.
e.
The
individual’s never-joining action with others, as motivated only by
crowd-engendered emotionalism, or by a sense of the crowd’s power to overwhelm,
or in fear of holding to the course indicated by one’s own intellectual
convictions."
I felt sure on reading Vaclav Smil's books that he must be motivated by no lesser reasons than Fuller – and then, there amongst 1000+ references, I find Vaclav Smil’s listing of: Fuller, R.B. 1981. Critical Path, New York: St Martin’s Press, in Energy at the Crossroads.
I felt sure on reading Vaclav Smil's books that he must be motivated by no lesser reasons than Fuller – and then, there amongst 1000+ references, I find Vaclav Smil’s listing of: Fuller, R.B. 1981. Critical Path, New York: St Martin’s Press, in Energy at the Crossroads.
MIT Press Paperback 2005
“The most sober, thorough, and thoughtful integrated text on
energy available, and it embodies core facts and some fundamental truths that
any analyst of energy issues should ponder…. This book should change the map by which we
navigate the new energy century. In its intellectual content it is a great
book, standing head and shoulders above most integrated writings on energy and
environment.”
Michael Grubb, Nature
In Energy at the Crossroads Vaclav Smil
considers the twenty-first century’s crucial question: how to reconcile the modern world’s unceasing
demand for energy with the absolute necessity to preserve the integrity of the
biosphere. With this book he offers a comprehensive, accessible guide to today’s
complex energy issues – how to think clearly and logically about what is
possible and what is desirable in our energy future.
MIT Press Paperback 2003
“Finally we have an accessible, highly integrated account of
the environment: wise rather than
clever, responsible rather than glib, comprehensive rather than confused,
comprehensible rather than new. Smil’s unique biospheric narrative, devoid of
hype and patriotism, transcends academic apartheid. This immensely learned
story of the past history and current state of the third planet is destined to
become required reading for anyone who seeks the environmental context for
human activity.”
Lynn
Margulis, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Geosciences,
University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and recipient of the National Medal of
Science.
MIT Press, 2013
“Vaclav Smil, the extraordinary polymath, critically evaluates what we know about the enormous impact of humans on the productive capacity of Earth through our history. He concludes that our future will bring major challenges to society and threats to our biotic storehouse if we are to meet the demands of the projected nine billion people to feed by 2050.”
Harold Mooney, Professor of Biology, Emeritus, Stanford University
“Wood and charcoal are still widely used in Brazil, the country that also leads the world in the use of ethanol; unfortunately, other national programs promoting liquid biofuels (most notably the U.S. corn-based ethanol and European biodiesel) make little sense as they do not offer any environmental, energetic, or economic advantages.” from Chapter 9
Go, get yourself some Tyger Nights.....
