Main entry:

Smil, Vaclav, author.

Title & Author:

Growth : from microorganisms to megacities / Vaclav Smil.

Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2019]
©2019

Description:

xxv, 634 pages : illustrations, charts ; 24 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages [521]-620) and index.
Trajectories: or common patterns of growth -- Nature: or growth of living matter -- Energies: or growth of primary and secondary converters -- Artifacts: or growth of man-made objects and their performances -- Populations, societies, economies: or growth of the most complex assemblies -- What comes after growth: or demise and continuity -- Coda.

Summary:

"Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations. Smil takes readers from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities--developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations, explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time, but that the progress of societies and economies, not so linear, encompasses both decline and renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization, driven by competing imperatives of material growth and biospheric limits, Smil tells us, remains uncertain." -- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780262042833 (hardcover alkaline paper)
0262042835 (hardcover alkaline paper)
9780262539685 (paperback)
0262539683 (paperback)

Subject:

Civilization, Modern 21st century.
Technology and civilization.
Growth.
Human ecology.
Population.
Energy development.
Economic development.
Cities and towns Growth.
Urban ecology (Sociology)
Urban ecology (Biology)
Civilisation 21e siècle.
Technologie et civilisation.
Croissance.
Écologie humaine.
Énergie Développement.
Développement économique.
Villes Croissance.
Écologie urbaine.
growth.
human ecology.
economic development.
suburban growth.
urban sprawl.
urban environments.
Civilization, Modern
Gesellschaft
Großstadt
Natur
Technik
Wachstumsprozess
Wirtschaft
Economic Growth.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 306863
Call No.: BIB 252403
Status: Available