Finished reading How the World Really Works: The Science of How We Got Here and Where We Are Going, which you can use Bill Gates. What can I say, I am disappointed both by the author's attitude to the questions, and by the fact that the book is highly praised in various circles.
The main feature of the author is that he deeply understands a variety of topics, approaching issues from a scientific point of view. Therefore, in fact, he earned himself a reputation as an objective expert, who "can not be deceived." Unfortunately, only reputation.
The main theme of the book is that humanity cannot get away from paying for fossils, in particular, coal and oil. Like, everything that we do around - from agriculture to manufactories - works, to a greater extent, precisely on the same oil. In turn, either unsupported or occupying an insignificant part of the market.
Unfortunately, the feeling is that the author, although he is trying to be as objective as possible and makes an exception based on the data, but selects the data for the theses, and does not build the theses on the basis of the data. According to inclinations, all knowledge is in search - and the author's comparison is simply not enough.
Vatslav talks about the impossibility of abandoning harmful minerals and the impossibility of solving the problem of global warming with innovations, but he forgets about the development and energy efficiency of the global atom. He often mentions the significant cost of growing tomatoes to prick people who have given up plant foods, but forgets to mention the comparison of plant and meat diets in terms of labor and energy costs to create one calorie. He talks about how poor countries need to eat meat to survive - but that happens in India, where 39% of the population (or 538 million people) are vegetarians who don't particularly die.
In short, some kind of wrong economist, broke down, to carry a new one. It feels like he is simply voicing ideas popular among the upper class of wealth, backing them up with some kind of data. Therefore, it is convenient to promote his books.
Unfortunately, people will read this book and just take the author's word for it. After all, he brought the data, to put it mildly, a ton. It could have been a cool work on the development of spiritual people, but in reality it turned out to be just a peremptory advancement of the author's position.
