Our Final Century: Will The Human Race Survive the Twenty-First Century? by Martin Rees - review by A C Grayling

A C Grayling

Apocalypse Now

Our Final Century: Will The Human Race Survive the Twenty-First Century?

By

William Heinemann 228pp £17.99 order from our bookshop
 

IT MATTERS THAT one should understand the provenance of this important and disturbing book. It is not another futurological diatribe saying that the end is nigh, but a lucid, calm, profoundly well-informed work by a distinguished scientist, whose humanity - evidenced by a serious ethical commitment and a quiet sense of humour - balances the dispassionate logic with which he surveys his subject: the multitude of threats facing humanity in the twenty-first century from error and terror in the nuclear, biological and environmental spheres.

While it contains no element of scaremongering, the conclusion Martin Rees reaches is a deeply disquieting one. To put a number on it, humankind has, in his considered view, only about a 50 per cent chance of surviving the century - at least without one or more major catastrophes that

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter