Ronald Bailey Reviews Making the Modern World

From 1900 to 2000, the U.S. population quadrupled
while the economy expanded 26-fold. As a result, U.S. per capita
consumption of materials rose from 1.9 tons in 1900 to 5.6 tons in
1950 to 12 tons in 2000. In Making the Modern World, the
University of Manitoba natural scientist Vaclav Smil cites data
suggesting that global annual output now comprises about 10 billion
different products. Nevertheless, the majority of people on the
planet have not yet achieved the material abundance enjoyed by
Americans, Europeans, and the Japanese. Can humanity find,
transform, and deploy enough resources to lift those people into
affluence? Reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey
delves into Smil’s primer on modern material flows seeking the
answer.

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