--- description: Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. His new book is How the World Really Works title: TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Vaclav Smil ## Vaclav Smil Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. His new book is [How the World Really Works](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/666342/how-the-world-really-works-by-vaclav-smil/) ## Vaclav Smil Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close *  May 12, 2022 ### [The Modern World Can't Exist Without These Four Ingredients. They All Require Fossil Fuels](https://time.com/6175734/reliance-on-fossil-fuels/) [IDEAS](/section/ideas/) Meta: null ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Organization","@id":"https://time.com/","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/author/vaclav-smil/","name":"Vaclav Smil"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Person","@id":"https://time.com/author/vaclav-smil/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/author/vaclav-smil/"},"name":"Vaclav Smil","jobTitle":null,"description":"Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is the author of over forty books on topics including energy, environmental and population change, food production and nutrition, technical innovation, risk assessment, and public policy. His new book is How the World Really Works","url":"https://time.com/author/vaclav-smil/","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/"}}] ```