The Skimmer

The End

By Marq de Villiers

Thomas Dunne Books; 368 pages

We're doomed. No matter what we do, something is going to get us eventually--a comet already whizzing toward Earth, maybe, or exploding methane gas unleashed by global warming. De Villiers takes a virtual flight around the globe to examine the natural threats to our existence, from earthquakes to tornadoes to plagues. It's a mix of sobering facts enlivened by historical anecdotes. Take, for example, the Portuguese king who became morbidly afraid of buildings after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake or the poisonous red ants which descended on a Caribbean town during a 1902 volcanic eruption. More worrisome is the realization that mankind's existence is, according to the laws of probability, fleeting. Writes de Villiers: "The period of calm in which the human species was formed is only a brief drawing of the breath before the cosmic assault begins once more." So how do we maximize our time in what de Villiers calls a "perilously thin habitable layer on a vulnerable and unstable planet in a hostile neighborhood"? Plan for the worst. As he says, "Good information is the best antidote."

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