Apocalypse not yet – Surviving the 21st Century

New book Surviving the 21st Century enriches understanding of humanity's greatest challenges and why we need to solve them

Heidelberg, 20 October 2016

Humanity and our civilization are facing the greatest challenge in the million-year ascent of our species. It consists of the coming-together of ten huge, man-made threats which are now combining to imperil our future. In his new book Surviving the 21st Century - Humanity’s ten great challenges and how we can overcome them, published by Springer, Julian Cribb explores these risks and explains what can and should be done to limit them.

According to the author, the ten intersecting existential threats are ecological collapse, resource depletion, weapons of mass destruction, climate change, global poisoning, food crises, population and urban overexpansion, pandemic disease, dangerous new technologies and self-delusion. Surviving the 21st Century explores in detail the scientific evidence for their existence as well as the importance of cross-cutting solutions that do not make matters worse in other areas.

The book also probes two controversial theories. Firstly, it challenges our cherished beliefs in areas such as money, politics, religion and the human narrative. Do they prevent us from recognizing the real risks we are facing and from solving them together? Can we reinvent them to focus on our survival? Secondly, the author wonders whether our species, Homo sapiens, is fit to bear the title and whether or not it should be renamed.

Surviving the 21st Century not only describes problems and raises issues – it also identifies uplifting and positive solutions to our most pressing challenges. In addition, it looks into two paradigm-shattering developments in society which might help us tackle these challenges: the evolution of our ability to ‘think as a species’ through global connections made at lightspeed on the internet, and the emergence of women as world leaders to a safer, more sustainable future.

Julian Cribb is an Australian science writer and former newspaper editor, with over thirty awards for journalism to his credit. He is principal of Julian Cribb & Associates, specialist in science communication and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. Surviving the 21st Century is the third volume in Cribb’s scientific trilogy about the future of humanity.

Julian Cribb

Surviving the 21st Century - Humanity’s Ten Great Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them

2016, XII, 255 p. 17 illus. in colour

Softcover $ 24.99, € 36.39 , £ 19.50 ISBN 978-3-319-41269-6
Also available as an eBook ISBN 978-3-319-41270-2