The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen review – Earth under threat
by PD Smith from on (#3ZMX6)
Are we heading for a sixth mass extinction? This is a journey into the past to evaluate our future
As science journalist Peter Brannen points out, life is extremely fragile, a "thin glaze of interesting chemistry on an otherwise unremarkable, cooling ball of stone". So fragile, in fact, that in the planet's history there have been five mass extinctions, when nearly all life has been wiped out. The question hanging over this book is whether the current most dominant species on the planet is about to cause a sixth mass extinction.
Continue reading...