Racing to Extinction
The best book, by far, that I read in 2024 was Lyle Lewis’ Racing to Extinction. It explains how we got ourselves into our current predicament (catastrophic ecological overshoot and the sixth mass extinction), and, as the book’s subtitle states, why humanity will soon be one of many casualties of this extinction.
Lyle recently recorded a description of why he called his book Racing to Extinction, and the six major waypoints so far on our path to our own extinction. It’s worth listening to his discussion, included below; I’ve summarized these points here:
Waypoints in human history
“If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going.”
1. Developing a shoulder that we could throw with (developed over millions of years). This allowed us to separate ourselves from killing.
2. Our ability to use fire (50,000-1,000,000 years ago). This allowed us to become an invasive species.
3. Our ability to imagine things that don’t exist (35,000-40,000 years ago). This allowed us to work together in larger groups without knowing each other. (E.g. the shared myth of money allows global trade.)
4. Advent of agriculture (10,000-12,000 years ago). It spread quickly and in a fairly short time, agricultural practices were happening almost everywhere. This gave rise to civilizations, and this is when we began to have a huge impact on the biosphere.
5. The beginning of industrialization (250 years ago). This allowed us to easily go to places we’d never been before. It also supercharged our impact on biosphere and the resulting loss of productivity of landscapes all around the planet.
6. The advent of chemicals (1950 or so). Plastics and other chemicals become huge industries. This allowed us to begin poisoning ourselves and the entire planet.
The timeframe between waypoints has shrunk dramatically; they all continue to precipitate an effect on our biosphere. They are all cumulative, and all are leading to our extinction.
Lyle occasionally posts excellent articles expanding on his book on topics including the natural world, human behavior, and extinction, on his blog.
OMG, Elisabeth, you’ve understated the value of Lyle Lewis’ MIND-BLOWING work!!! RACING TO EXTINCTION is on the par, if not even more valuable than Catton’s OVERSHOOT!! Studying Lewis’ articles & interviews most of the day, reveals THE MOST helpful framework & history, I’ve encountered for understanding collapse, overshoot, peak oil, Jevon’s paradox, greenwashing, limits to growth, carrying capacity, etc.
The light that Lewis shines is absolutely blinding … but really, reality is our only refuge!!
Many many many thanks!! 🙏
Thanks, I'll check it out, though I generally don't find the "human extinction" idea useful. If we go, we'll be amongst the very last, at which point all's been lost anyways. This was my problem with XR. I went to one of their meetings in Seattle thinking, finally someone organized around extinction. But their concern was human extinction, due to CO2 of course, never mind the industrial maw. Never went back.