Extinction And The Human

Author : Annalee Newitz
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385535929
Total Pages : 333 pages
Book Rating : 4.22/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Scatter, Adapt, and Remember written by Annalee Newitz and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How? As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference. It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever. Life on Earth has come close to annihilation—humans have, more than once, narrowly avoided extinction just during the last million years—but every single time a few creatures survived, evolving to adapt to the harshest of conditions. This brilliantly speculative work of popular science focuses on humanity’s long history of dodging the bullet, as well as on new threats that we may face in years to come. Most important, it explores how scientific breakthroughs today will help us avoid disasters tomorrow. From simulating tsunamis to studying central Turkey’s ancient underground cities; from cultivating cyanobacteria for “living cities” to designing space elevators to make space colonies cost-effective; from using math to stop pandemics to studying the remarkable survival strategies of gray whales, scientists and researchers the world over are discovering the keys to long-term resilience and learning how humans can choose life over death. Newitz’s remarkable and fascinating journey through the science of mass extinctions is a powerful argument about human ingenuity and our ability to change. In a world populated by doomsday preppers and media commentators obsessively forecasting our demise, Scatter, Adapt, and Remember is a compelling voice of hope. It leads us away from apocalyptic thinking into a future where we live to build a better world—on this planet and perhaps on others. Readers of this book will be equipped scientifically, intellectually, and emotionally to face whatever the future holds.

Author : Elizabeth Kolbert
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
ISBN 13 : 0805099794
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sixth Extinction written by Elizabeth Kolbert and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Author : Thomas Moynihan
Publisher : MIT Press
ISBN 13 : 1913029840
Total Pages : 481 pages
Book Rating : 4.45/5 ( download)

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Download or read book X-Risk written by Thomas Moynihan and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How humanity came to contemplate its possible extinction. From forecasts of disastrous climate change to prophecies of evil AI superintelligences and the impending perils of genome editing, our species is increasingly concerned with the prospects of its own extinction. With humanity's future on this planet seeming more insecure by the day, in the twenty-first century, existential risk has become the object of a growing field of serious scientific inquiry. But, as Thomas Moynihan shows in X-Risk, this preoccupation is not exclusive to the post-atomic age of global warming and synthetic biology. Our growing concern with human extinction itself has a history. Tracing this untold story, Moynihan revisits the pioneers who first contemplated the possibility of human extinction and stages the historical drama of this momentous discovery. He shows how, far from being a secular reprise of religious prophecies of apocalypse, existential risk is a thoroughly modern idea, made possible by the burgeoning sciences and philosophical tumult of the Enlightenment era. In recollecting how we first came to care for our extinction, Moynihan reveals how today's attempts to measure and mitigate existential threats are the continuation of a project initiated over two centuries ago, which concerns the very vocation of the human as a rational, responsible, and future-oriented being.

Author : John Leslie
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134668546
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.40/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The End of the World written by John Leslie and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-08 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are we in imminent danger of extinction? Yes, we probably are, argues John Leslie in his chilling account of the dangers facing the human race as we approach the second millenium. The End of the World is a sobering assessment of the many disasters that scientists have predicted and speculated on as leading to apocalypse. In the first comprehensive survey, potential catastrophes - ranging from deadly diseases to high-energy physics experiments - are explored to help us understand the risks. One of the greatest threats facing humankind, however, is the insurmountable fact that we are a relatively young species, a risk which is at the heart of the 'Doomsday Argument'. This argument, if correct, makes the dangers we face more serious than we could have ever imagined. This more than anything makes the arrogance and ignorance of politicians, and indeed philosophers, so disturbing as they continue to ignore the manifest dangers facing future generations.

Author : Christos Lynteris
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000698882
Total Pages : 205 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Human Extinction and the Pandemic Imaginary written by Christos Lynteris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-09-19 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book develops an examination and critique of human extinction as a result of the ‘next pandemic’ and turns attention towards the role of pandemic catastrophe in the renegotiation of what it means to be human. Nested in debates in anthropology, philosophy, social theory and global health, the book argues that fear of and fascination with the ‘next pandemic’ stem not so much from an anticipation of a biological extinction of the human species, as from an expectation of the loss of mastery over human/non-humanl relations. Christos Lynteris employs the notion of the ‘pandemic imaginary’ in order to understand the way in which pandemic-borne human extinction refashions our understanding of humanity and its place in the world. The book challenges us to think how cosmological, aesthetic, ontological and political aspects of pandemic catastrophe are intertwined. The chapters examine the vital entanglement of epidemiological studies, popular culture, modes of scientific visualisation, and pandemic preparedness campaigns. This volume will be relevant for scholars and advanced students of anthropology as well as global health, and for many others interested in catastrophe, the ‘end of the world’ and the (post)apocalyptic.

Author : Jeffrey Kluger
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1594486115
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.11/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Sibling Effect written by Jeffrey Kluger and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative and surprising exploration of the longest sustained relationships we have in life—those we have with our siblings. Nobody affects us as deeply as our brothers and sisters. Our siblings are our collaborators and co-conspirators, our role models and cautionary tales. They teach us how to resolve conflicts and how not to, how to conduct friendships and when to walk away. Our siblings are the only people we know who truly qualify as partners for life. In this perceptive and groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Kluger explores the complex world of siblings in equal parts science, psychology, sociology, and memoir. Based on cutting-edge research, he examines birth order, twins, genetic encoding of behavioral traits, emotional disorders and their effects on sibling relationships, and much more. With his signature insight and humor, Kluger takes science’s provocative new ideas about the subject and transforms them into smart, accessible insights that will help everyone understand the importance of siblings in our lives.

Author : Jonathan Kingdon
Publisher : Wiley
ISBN 13 : 9780471159605
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.03/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Self-Made Man written by Jonathan Kingdon and published by Wiley. This book was released on 1996-11-04 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "One of the most original and illuminating of books on human evolution." — Alison Jolly Princeton University Human Evolution from Eden to Extinction? "A major achievement . . . rich and bursting at the seams." — Elspeth Huxley "A deeply personal, challenging, and important book." — Roger Lewin The New Scientist "With the eyes of an artist and the mind of a scientist, Kingdon gazes into the past." — Times Literary Supplement "A provocative and lively saga of human origins." — Publishers Weekly "Thought-provoking, information-packed fare for general readers as well as paleoanthropology buffs. — Kirkus Reviews

Author : Clive Finlayson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199239193
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Humans Who Went Extinct written by Clive Finlayson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-11 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in hardcover: Oxford; New York: Oxford Universtiy Press, 2009.

Author : Bruce E. Tonn
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000358887
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Anticipation, Sustainability, Futures and Human Extinction written by Bruce E. Tonn and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-05-16 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers the philosophical underpinnings, policy foundations, institutional innovations, and deep cultural changes needed to ensure that humanity has the best chance of surviving and flourishing into the very distant future. Anticipation of threats to the sustainability of human civilization needs to encompass time periods that span not just decades but millennia. All existential risks need to be jointly assessed, as opposed to addressing risks such as climate change and pandemics separately. Exploring the potential events that are likely to cause the biggest risks as well as asking why we should even desire to thrive into the distant future, this work looks at the ‘biggest picture possible’ in order to argue that futures-oriented decision-making ought to be a permanent aspect of human society and futures-oriented policy making must take precedent over the day-to-day policy making of current generations in times of great peril. The book concludes with a discourse on the truly fundamental bottom-up changes needed in our personal psychologies and culture to support these top-down recommendations. This book is of great interest to philosophers, policy analysts, political scientists, economists, psychologists, planners, and theologians.

Author : Stacy McAnulty
Publisher : Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
ISBN 13 : 075955398X
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.89/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Save the People! written by Stacy McAnulty and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Save the People is engaging, funny, affecting and delightful. You’ll never have more fun learning science." --Stuart Gibbs, bestselling author of the Spy School series "Serious science and great gags, with a bit of hope thrown in.” --Steven Sheinkin, bestselling author of Bomb and Fallout An action-packed look at past, present, and future threats to humanity’s survival—with an ultimately reassuring message that humans probably have a few more millennia in us. Scientists estimate that 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. Whoa. So, it's not unreasonable to predict humans are doomed to become fossil records as well. But what could lead to our demise? Supervolcanos? Asteroids? The sun going dark? Climate change? All the above?! Humans—with our big brains, opposable thumbs, and speedy Wi-Fi—may be capable of avoiding most of these nightmares. (The T. rex would be super jealous of our satellites.) But we're also capable of triggering world-ending events. Learning from past catastrophes may be the best way to avoid future disasters. Packed with science, jokes, and black and white illustrations, Save the People! examines the worst-case scenarios that could (but hopefully won’t) cause the greatest mass extinction—our own!