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Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature
An interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistoric hunting to modern energy production. The biosphere—the Earth's thin layer of life—dates from nearly four billion years ago, when the first simple organisms appeared. Many species have exerted enormous influence on the biosphere's character and productivity, but none has transformed the Earth in so many ways and on such a scale as Homo sapiens . In Harvesting the Biosphere , Vaclav Smil offers an interdisciplinary and quantitative account of human claims on the biosphere's stores of living matter, from prehistory to the present day. Smil examines all harvests—from prehistoric man's hunting of megafauna to modern crop production—and all uses of harvested biomass, including energy, food, and raw materials. Without harvesting of the biomass, Smil points out, there would be no story of human evolution and advancing civilization; but at the same time, the increasing extent and intensity of present-day biomass harvests are changing the very foundations of civilization's well-being. In his detailed and comprehensive account, Smil presents the best possible quantifications of past and current global losses in order to assess the evolution and extent of biomass harvests. Drawing on the latest work in disciplines ranging from anthropology to environmental science, Smil offers a valuable long-term, planet-wide perspective on human-caused environmental change.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published December 21, 2012
About the author
Vaclav Smil
61 books3,897 followersVaclav Smil Ph.D. (Geography, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences of Pennsylvania State University, 1971; RNDr., Charles University, Prague, 1965), is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and in 2010 was named by Foreign Policy as one of the Top 100 Global Thinkers.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 18, 2015
Exhaustively researched.
An algal bloom of numbers creating anoxic conditions for prose. Brutal.
An algal bloom of numbers creating anoxic conditions for prose. Brutal.
February 25, 2013
Interesting and informative, but too much focus on different numbers and their uncertainties... And I say this as a numbers guy.
November 5, 2014
Another interesting, well researched, and informative book from Smil that gives a great quantitative overview of the human impact on the biosphere. Unfortunately this guy is just too prolific to bother with getting an editor, so leaves it to the reader to catch the many typos and to construct their own summary charts of his scattered data points.
May 29, 2019
This is a study of great depth and breadth, offering great insights. I, being a 'numbers' person, found it hard to read because of the continuous change of units and reference concepts. Nevertheless I recommend it for its relevant content.
May 13, 2015
A very data heavy book focusing on phytomass and zoomass incl ocean mass; how we have altered those things in, largely the last 200 years.
Also rubbishes some long standing beliefs about how we cause extinction of other species.
Speaks a lot about the havoc we have created in the ocean's zoomass
Sadly, the book lacks a good dumbing down or lessons that people ought to take away; sure, the last chapter tries to compact the key points in but fails in giving the reader a decent roadmap ahead when it comes to really understanding how we are wasting or what is fundamentally wrong about eating animals even though they are really tasty.
The book does a great job at creating awareness about the human's footprint and irrational consumption.
But yes. a very brilliant book that could use some refinement.
Notes: Yield of crop, population control, temperate forests, ocean's dwindling population, cattle and pigs, human's world.
Also rubbishes some long standing beliefs about how we cause extinction of other species.
Speaks a lot about the havoc we have created in the ocean's zoomass
Sadly, the book lacks a good dumbing down or lessons that people ought to take away; sure, the last chapter tries to compact the key points in but fails in giving the reader a decent roadmap ahead when it comes to really understanding how we are wasting or what is fundamentally wrong about eating animals even though they are really tasty.
The book does a great job at creating awareness about the human's footprint and irrational consumption.
But yes. a very brilliant book that could use some refinement.
Notes: Yield of crop, population control, temperate forests, ocean's dwindling population, cattle and pigs, human's world.
February 11, 2020
very in depth review of everything that goes into quantifying humanities harvest of the biosphere. I would highly recommend reading the last chapter, gives a very good, very detailed, but less exhaustive overview of the entire book, highlighting what rules humanity should follow to sustainably follow the earth over the next century
October 23, 2021
How sweet! A moralist book coming from one of the few virtuous who have stopped living off Nature, and now live an excellent life off the tax money. Not only so, but they are also hiring servants and bringing more nephews into this generous life. Better yet: once government starts paying you, the life becomes so that writing a book is the hard labor.
November 6, 2021
A bit like sapiens but dryer and with more numbers
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews