Canadian scientist, ecologist and political scientist Vaclav Smil is famous for his works on the connection of energy with ecology, demography and real politics, as well as his virtuoso ability to handle large amounts of statistical data. This book, which so delighted Bill Gates, summarizes the most interesting materials that Smil writes for IEEE Spectrum, one of the world's leading scientific and engineering publications, and is an up-to-date guide to understanding the true state of affairs on our planet. It covers a wide range of topics related to people, entire peoples and countries, energy and how we use it, technical innovations, as well as machines and devices that determine the face of modern civilization. Pressing and important, combining statistics and history written with a sense of humour, this book encourages us to question what we thought was true.