The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions

New York Times Editors' Choice 2017

Forbes Top 10 Best Environment, Climate, and Conservation Book of 2017

As new groundbreaking research suggests that climate change played a major role in the most extreme catastrophes in the planet's history, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen takes us on a wild ride through the planet's five mass extinctions and, in the process, offers us a glimpse of our increasingly dangerous future.

Our world has ended five times: it has been broiled, frozen, poison-gassed, smothered, and pelted by asteroids. In The Ends of the World, Peter Brannen dives into deep time, exploring Earth’s past dead ends and, in the process, offering us a glimpse of our possible future.

Many scientists now believe that the climate shifts of the twenty-first century have analogs in these five extinctions. Using the visible clues these devastations have left behind in the fossil record, The Ends of the World takes us inside “scenes of the crime,” from South Africa to the New York Palisades, to tell the story of each extinction. Brannen examines the fossil record—which is rife with creatures like dragonflies the size of sea gulls and guillotine-mouthed fish—and introduces us to the researchers on the front lines who, using the forensic tools of modern science, are piecing together what really happened.

Part road trip, part history, and part cautionary tale, this compelling work of environmental science takes us on a tour of the ways that our planet has clawed itself back from the grave, and casts our future in a completely new light.

A fascinating work of popular science, The Ends of the World takes us inside the crime scenes of Earth’s biggest whodunits to reveal:

• Deep Time Exploration: Journey through Earth’s five mass extinctions, from the age of sea-gull-sized dragonflies to the asteroid that changed the world forever.
• Climate Change History: Uncover groundbreaking research connecting today's climate shifts to the most extreme catastrophes in the planet's past.
• Fossil Record Forensics: Visit the real-life “scenes of the crime,” from South Africa to the New York Palisades, where scientists are decoding what really happened.
• A Cautionary Tale: Understand how the story of our planet’s past provides an essential glimpse into the environmental challenges of our increasingly dangerous future.