Henry Gee

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The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire

Nature editor and Science Book Prize winner Henry Gee explores the future of our species and our probable extinction, while suggesting how, through technological innovation, we might indefinitely postpone our fate.

'Brilliant' - The Times

'Hugely informative and entertaining' - New Scientist

'Put this at the head of your reading lists immediately' - Eric Idle

From the winner of the 2022 Royal Society Science Book Prize, a thrilling and thought-provoking account of the rise and fall of humankind.

For the first time in over ten millennia, the rate of human population growth is slowing down. The global population is forecast to begin declining in the second half of this century, and in 10,000 years' time our species will likely be extinct.

In The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire, Henry Gee shows how we arrived at this crucial moment in history, beginning his story deep in the palaeolithic past and charting our dramatic rise from one species of human among many to the most dominant animal ever to live on Earth.

But rapid climate change, a stagnating global economy, falling birth rates and an unexplainable decline in average human sperm count are combining to make our chances for longevity increasingly slim. There could be a way forward, but the launch window is narrow . . .

Drawing on a dazzling array of the latest scientific research, Gee tells the extraordinary story of humanity with characteristic warmth and wit, and suggests how our exceptional species might avoid its tragic fate.

'Like Jared Diamond meets Arthur C. Clarke with a dash of Douglas Adams' - Philip Ball, author of How Life Works