Chapter 4: The Flood (Sapiens)

There is a high chance that homo sapiens are responsible for the mass extinctions of various animal species that occurred in Australia, America, Africa, and other parts of the world.

While some blame can be attributed to climate change (the earth goes through an ice age every 100,000 years on average), the human contribution to ecological disasters throughout history is most to blame given the circumstantial evidence. That isn’t to mention the other human species that were driven to extinction.

Long before the invention of the wheel or of writing, half of the big beasts on earth had been wiped out by our ancestors.

The First Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the foragers, was followed by the Second Wave Extinction, which accompanied the spread of the farmers, and gives us an important perspective on the Third Wave Extinction, which industrial activity is causing today. Don’t believe tree-huggers who claim that our ancestors lived in harmony with nature.

We have earned the title of the deadliest species in history. Maybe if we were more aware of the previous extinctions that occurred because of us, we may be far more cautious about our actions today – where more extinctions are likely to take place, particularly in oceans, where industrial waste and human exploitation is prominent.

Read Sapiens

If you are interested in reading books about unmasking human nature, consider reading The Dichotomy of the Self, a book that explores the great psychoanalytic and philosophical ideas of our time, and what they can reveal to us about the nature of the self.

YARPP List

Related posts:

1. Chapter 11: Imperial Visions (Sapiens)
2. Chapter 20: The End of Homo-sapiens (Sapiens)
3. Ch 1: A Foreign Country (The Better Angels of Our Nature)
4. The Better Angels of our Nature Summary (8/10)