The God Species

Originally published as The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans

The green movement has got it very wrong.

Nature no longer controls our planet – it is humanity, ‘the god species’, that must save the environment we have inflicted unprecedented damage upon. And the tools we must use are the very technologies that environmentalist have told us for years will spell disaster: nuclear power, GM food and geo-engineering.

In this blistering and urgent manifesto, Mark Lynas identifies a new future for the green movement and an entirely fresh agenda for how we will save the Earth, and ourselves.

Reviews

'Radical. Will outrage many readers’ Independent

'Wonderfully sane and cogent’ Guardian

‘Mark Lynas is one of a growing band of influential figures, along with James Lovelock, Stewart Brand and George Monbiot, who now argue that the approach of most Greens to climate change needs to change… He is wonderfully sane and cogent on difficult issues… He has written the clearest exposition so far of the choices facing us. We may wince at the book's title (it derives from Stewart Brand's remark: "We are as gods and have to get good at it"), but Lynas is not playing God, simply making a passionate pitch for good global resource management.’ Peter Forbes, Guardian

‘An intriguing thesis and Lynas outlines it with clarity and panache’ Observer

‘Planetary boundaries richly merit a popular treatment, and The God Species taps their potential to offer a sharply focused vision of planetary dynamics that goes beyond warming and extinctions.’ Financial Times

‘The power of Lynas’s voice comes not just from his deep research but also his authority as a campaigner’ Sunday Times

‘This is a clear-eyed, hard-headed assessment of the ecological challenges facing us – and all the more bracing for it’ Evening Standard

‘Before reading this book, worrying about biodiversity had seemed a chattering class luxury to me’. Independent, Book of the Week

‘A redemptive manifesto for humanity’ New Scientist

About the author

Mark Lynas is an activist, journalist and traveller. He was editor of the website www.oneworld.net and has made many appearances in the press and TV as a commentator on environmental issues. He is the author of High Tide and Six Degrees.