![]() Smil excels at answering big questions like these. Can we make enough steel for all those cars and enough concrete for all those roads? What are the risks if we do? In other words, can we bring billions of people out of poverty without destroying the environment? ![]() Instead he’s interested in the materials we use to meet the demands of modern life. Smil says at the start of Making the Modern World that he won’t spend much time on those topics (which means climate change doesn’t come up much). I had already read Smil’s books on energy and diet. ![]() And they will need more materials: steel to make cars and refrigerators concrete for roads and runways copper wiring for telecommunications. As more people join the global middle class, they will need affordable clean energy. We want most of that miracle to take place for all of humanity over the next 50 years. ![]() Think of the amazing increase in quality of life that we saw in the United States and other rich countries in the past 100 years. It might seem mundane, but the issue of materials-how much we use and how much we need-is key to helping the world’s poorest people improve their lives.
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