Save the People!

Book excerpt: "Save the People is engaging, funny, affecting and delightful. You’ll never have more fun learning science." --Stuart Gibbs, bestselling author of the Spy School series "Serious science and great gags, with a bit of hope thrown in.” --Steven Sheinkin, bestselling author of Bomb and Fallout An action-packed look at past, present, and future threats to humanity’s survival—with an ultimately reassuring message that humans probably have a few more millennia in us. Scientists estimate that 99% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct. Whoa. So, it's not unreasonable to predict humans are doomed to become fossil records as well. But what could lead to our demise? Supervolcanos? Asteroids? The sun going dark? Climate change? All the above?! Humans—with our big brains, opposable thumbs, and speedy Wi-Fi—may be capable of avoiding most of these nightmares. (The T. rex would be super jealous of our satellites.) But we're also capable of triggering world-ending events. Learning from past catastrophes may be the best way to avoid future disasters. Packed with science, jokes, and black and white illustrations, Save the People! examines the worst-case scenarios that could (but hopefully won’t) cause the greatest mass extinction—our own!