| Description |
xxv, 634 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-620) and index. |
| Contents |
Preface -- Trajectories: or common patterns of growth |
| Summary |
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 activitiesdevelopments 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. |
| Subject |
Civilization, Modern -- 21st century.
|
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Technology and civilization.
|
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Growth.
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Human ecology.
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Population.
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Energy development.
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Economic development.
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Cities and towns -- Growth.
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Urban ecology (Sociology)
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| ISBN |
9780262042833 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
|
0262042835 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
| Standard No. |
2018059356 |
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