Numbers Don’t Lie: Book Review

At once thought-provoking, witty, and actually fun to read, Vaclav Smil’s book Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World tackles common questions such as “Is flying dangerous?” and “What makes people happy?” to those that are fun to ponder, such as “Which is more energy efficient—planes, trains, or automobiles?” and “How much do the world’s cows weigh?” And as the book’s themes are central to that of this blog, I trust that this book review will be valuable to our readers. I also recently pushed an even more complete review of this book in a recent issue of the Journal of Geography.

The book meets what I believe its objective to be: To explain things that happen in the world through statistics. In contrast with the author’s previous books on energy policy and other specialized topics, here the author seeks to educate a more general audience. Indeed, Bill Gates wrote in August 2021 that Smil is his “favorite author” and that Numbers Don’t Lie is Smil’s “most accessible book yet.” Given the title, as
expected, numbers abound, but Smil explains aspects of our modern society and how that society came to be in engaging ways.

In line with our “be critical of the data” mantra of this blog, the readers will no doubt want to know about the author: The author is a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. His research includes energy, environmental, food, population, economic, historical and public policy studies, and he was the first non-American to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He has written dozens of books from energy to eating meat, and from China to ecology.

This book touches on themes into which Smil has delved in his previous books. Thus, the author brings a scientific perspective to Numbers Don’t Lie that recent books on “how to understand the world” or even “how to understand the world through maps” written by journalists and others may not. As the general educated public is the intended audience, this often funny book is one you could give to a friend or
relative to enjoy. Admittedly, I would have liked to see more maps, but I found the photos and charts to be interesting and well-chosen. I recommend that this book be considered as a source for readings in high school and undergraduate geography and GIS courses. It is easy to imagine that a Smil question such as “What’s worse for the environment—your car or your phone?” can spark a fruitful discussion in classes and also with workplace colleagues.

The book also touches on a key geographic theme that the world is a complex, dynamic place. Not everything can be explained, such as longevity rates for the Japanese or why Panama has a higher happiness index than Italy. That the author acknowledges these mysteries is honest and refreshing.

Furthermore, not everything in the book is a fact or a number, which is also a good thing. Some sections present hypotheses or opinions. You may not agree with everything postulated by the author, for example, that the 1880s might have been the most consequential decade in human history for its technological enhancements. But even if you don’t, debates about the “most influential decade technologically” or “politically” or “socially” can again be more fruitful than if everyone in your classroom or workplace is in agreement.

I believe the book is also useful for a deeper reason: Many geographers and GIS professionals are well-grounded in the tenets of the book How to Lie with Maps by Mark Monmonier that is currently in its third edition (2018). They’ve either read the book, or if not, understand the power that maps and geovisualizations have on shaping opinion and attitudes. A central theme of Spatial Reserves, my own long-running blog (https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com), is to be critical of the data. Numbers may have inherent objectivity, but whose numbers are they? How are they generated? What are the sources for Smil’s data? Can these sources be trusted? Such are the deeper discussions that Smil’s book can foster, coupled with his own graphics and maps that students can consume online or generate themselves using WebGIS tools. The author states up front that “getting the facts straight” is “not as easy as it might seem” (xi). Indeed, in the epilogue, the author states, “Even fairly reliable—indeed, even impeccably accurate—numbers need to be seen in wider contexts” (307). This point touches on the essence of holistic geographic thinking that investigates changes over space and over time.

Another quality that should endear this blog’s readers to this book is the author’s statement that “we
must set the numbers in the appropriate contexts: historical and international” (xii). These contexts give the numbers meaning. This book will thus be useful for instructors because it weaves history with geography. As a coauthor of the book Spatial Mathematics: Theory and Practice Through
Mapping, I also believe this book will help students to evaluate maps and charts more carefully and realize that developing numeracy skills is important (Arlinghaus and Kerski 2014). Learning to derive and represent these numbers is a key skill for all data analysts.

Numbers Don’t Lie book.

References

Arlinghaus, S. L, and J. Kerski. 2014. Spatial mathematics: Theory and practice through mapping. New York: Routledge.

Gates. B. 2021. What sweat, wine, and electricity can teach us about humanity. GatesNotes. Accessed October 10, 2021. https://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Numbers-Dont-Lie?WT.mc_id=20210803100000_
Numbers-Dont-Lie_BG-EM_&WT.tsrc=BGEM.

Monmonier. M. 2018. How to lie with maps. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know about the World, by Vaclav Smil, New York, Penguin Press, 2020, 362 pp., Digital. (Paperback from $79.17). ISBN 9780143136224

The Questions Concerning Technology: The Case of Geotechnologies

L.M. Sacasas reflects thoughtfully upon and writes about technology in society. One of Sacasas’ essays in particular in my judgment poses some good food for thought for those of us immersed in geospatial technology; the essay entitled The Questions Concerning Technology. These reflections and set of questions, wherein Sacasas updates his earlier post, are relevant and timely for the geotech community to frequently ask ourselves in our daily work. Along with these questions, it might be helpful to examine our posts about ethics, such as teaching about ethics, here, and reflections on Geoethics discussions, here. I invite you to examine all 41 of the questions, but in particular, those I list below. I have included my own comments in parens after many of the questions. For a video of these reflections, click here. With my thanks to the work that L.M. Sacasas is doing.

• What sort of person will the use of this technology make of me? (See what I mean? Right away, a very insightful and thought-provoking question. What do I spend more time on and think about when I use GIS, and … perhaps even more important: What do I spend less time on?).
• What habits will the use of this technology instill? (Am I talking and listening to people more or less than before? Am I managing the time I am given on this Earth effectively?).
• How will the use of this technology affect my experience of time and place? (italics mine–since GIS is all about analyzing these two things, it only makes sense that we consider these. Plus, how will GIS affect how I interact with time and place? And, how does my own spatio-temporal framework affect my analysis?)
• How will the use of this technology affect how I relate to other people? (This community has had several conversations around the way we communicate now digitally and virtually replacing much of our face-to-face interactions of the past. In addition, we have had a long history of sharing, geomentoring, and “giving back” to education and beyond).
• How will the use of this technology affect how I relate to the world around me? (consider the action component of work with GIS: Are we using GIS just to gain more skills and knowledge, or does it lead to action in myself or in others, or both?).
• What practices will the use of this technology cultivate or displace? (For example, am I getting into the field more or less than before? Am I using tangible manipulatives, or other tools, more or less than before?).
• What will the use of this technology encourage me to notice or ignore? (From Pickles 1995 book Ground Truth to the present day, we have long been aware of the benefits but also the limitations of GIS analyses. Are we making strides in breaking through those limitations of GIS?).
• What was required of other human beings so that I might be able to use this technology? (GIS people are sensitive to our impact on the planet, so this one seems to mesh well with our community. But do we think about this often?)
• What was required of the earth so that I might be able to use this technology? (italics mine–overwhelmingly, GIS people think about the Earth all the time, so it seems like a natural fit, but this question adds a new element to our earth considerations).
• How does this technology empower me? At whose expense? (The GIS community has in recent years become rightfully concerned about empowering those who have not had a voice, using GIS and maps).
• Can I imagine living without this technology? Why, or why not? (Imagine for a moment if we had to go back to only using maps on physical media, or even the desktop-only GIS of the past).
• How does this technology encourage me to allocate my time? (Interesting… what should we in the geospatial community spend more time on in the future? And that leads to — what should we spend less time on?).
• Could the resources used to acquire and use this technology be better deployed? (Are we diversifying our community? Does GIS give those without a voice a voice? There are positive examples to be certain, but what else should we be doing?).
• What possibilities for action does this technology present? Is it good that these actions are now possible? (I would argue that GIS has always been action-oriented, with a chief aim to build a healthier, more equitable, safer, more resilient world, but again, are these higher goals always in mind when we use the technology?).
• What possibilities for action does this technology foreclose? Is it good that these actions are no longer possible? (We often discuss the opening of possibilities, but what about the closings? Are there any, what are they, and why do they matter?).
• How does the use of this technology shape my vision of a good life? (What are my goals for my life and career? Am I really making a positive contribution to people and the planet?).
• What limits does the use of this technology impose upon me? What limits does my use of this technology impose upon others? (Again, more insightful questions; I may not like to think about these things but they are important questions to ask!).
• What assumptions about the world does the use of this technology tacitly encourage? (Our use of any set of tools, and science itself, is shaped by our world views and attitudes).
• What knowledge has the use of this technology disclosed to me about myself and others? Is it good to have this knowledge? (As a place-based and increasingly personal technology, GIS has much potential to reveal things about ourselves and others. Do you share your fitness walks and runs for example? What else are you sharing–data, maps, apps, with whom, and why?).
• What are the potential harms to myself, others, or the world that might result from my use of this technology? (See for example our essay, here: https://spatialreserves.wordpress.com/2020/03/22/potential-harm-from-geotagging-photographs/).
• Upon what systems, technical or human, does my use of this technology depend? Are these systems just?
• Does using this technology require me to think more or less? (Challenging! I and other geo-educators are always encouraging students to think beyond the click-click-click of learning tools, to really thinking critically about your data, methods, objectives, and much more. GIS has always been, first and foremost, a thinker’s tool, as I point out here).
• What would the world be like if everyone used this technology exactly as I use it? (I think of Jack Dangermond’s vision of GIS becoming the “nervous system of the planet” enabling us to make smarter decisions).
• Can the consequences of my use of this technology be undone? Can I live with those consequences?
• Can I be held responsible for the actions which this technology empowers? Would I feel better if I couldn’t?

I look forward to your comments below.

–Joseph Kerski

Data Basin as a source for free and open geospatial data

Data Basin is a very useful geospatial data portal with a focus on ecosystems and conservation. “A team of scientists, software engineers, and educators at the Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) built Data Basin with the strong conviction that we can expand our individual and collective ability to develop sustainable solutions by empowering more people through access to spatial data, non-technical tools, and collaborative networks” is the resource’s purpose.

Hence, Data Basin is more than just a data portal–it is a community. One feature of this community is the ability to create a free member account to connect with others. In addition, every free member account comes with a personal workspace, which is available in the far right of the navigation bar. Here a member can easily access content that the member contributes (datasets and documents) or creates in Data Basin.

It had been a while since I had last used Data Basin, and when I recently refreshed my experience with it, I was pleasantly surprised to see how it has evolved. It encompasses the modern GIS elements we have written about in this blog, including the ability to view the map in an interactive way, examine the data, review the metadata, and access the data. The search tool worked well for me, and the browse tool was useful. To download a data set, you need to register for the site and create a profile, but this took only 5 minutes for me to do.

A unique and wonderful feature of Data Basin is that content is not just available as maps and layers, but also in galleries and groups. Through these galleries and groups, one can more readily find related content; for example, in the fire data by category for Santa Barbara County, one can find a set of over 100 items, all directly tied to the theme of fire in that part of the world. In addition, gateways are sites powered by Data Basin and curated by members of various interest groups. They showcase spatial information for a particular geography, topic, project or organization. Gateways include a subset of the data available on Data Basin.

Data Basin showing the results of one data set.

Data Basin is not a new resource, but as we have not reviewed it for this blog, and given its longstanding utility among the scientific and education community, it is worthy of attention and of rigorous use. Consider using it for your next project!

–Joseph Kerski