Can one planet survive the impact of a human population of close to 9 billion people? Environment writer, Andrew Revkin, interviews author and distinguished professor, Vaclav Smil, about the promise and perils of the next fifty years.

Can humanity, heading toward a population of approximatley 9 billion, advance economically without overheating the planet? Can food and water supplies be sustained without erasing what’s left of wild nature?

Vaclav Smil is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.

His interdisciplinary research interests encompass a broad area of energy, environmental, food, population, economic, historical and public policy studies, and he had also applied these approaches to energy, food and environmental affairs of China.