End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World

It’s almost astonishing how fragile existence truly is. We could be wiped out from outside by an asteroid, the sun going nova, or an alien encounter. We could be wiped out from within by disease or supervolcanoes. We could even wipe ourselves out through climate change, nuclear weapons, or technology run amok. And unless we get better at recognizing, accepting, and confronting these extinction-level threats, we may be destined to join the historical scrap heap alongside millions of other species.

End Times takes a frank look at these mind-blowing, yet entirely plausible threats to human civilization, exploring what we know about them and what we have yet to understand about them. Loaded with tons of expert information and testimony for researchers, scientists, and those who are ahead of the curve on these existential threats, this book is a treasure trove of data on the things we should be focusing on (as well as strategies we could implement in order to survive).

That being said, it is a bit of a nightmare factory as well. And given our penchant for putting off dealing with the big picture while we obsess over small-picture minutiae, it’s understandable that Walsh’s tone does tend toward the dreary side of forecasting humanity’s chances.

End Times/is a sobering read, but a necessary one.