Vaclav Smil is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. Smil 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 newest book, titled How the World Really Works, contains some startling information. Modern societies would be impossible without mass-scale production of many man-made materials. Four materials rank highest on the scale of necessity, forming what Smil calls the four pillars of modern civilization: cement, steel, plastics, and ammonia. All four require fossil fuels or the don’t exist.
