The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction

By the award-winning author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: a history of humanity on the brink of decline. A Next Big Idea Club Must-Read Selection We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more than ten thousand years, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. In the middle of this century population growth will stop, and the number of people on Earth will start to decline - fast. In this provocative book, award-winning science writer Henry Gee offers a concise, brilliantly-told history of our species--and argues that we are on a rapid, one-way trip to extinction. The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire narrates the dramatic rise of humanity, how a scattered range of small groups across several continents eventually inbred, interacted, fought, established stable communities and food supplies, and began the process of dominating the planet. The human story is relatively brief--the oldest fossils of H. Sapiens date to