Does the human race have a 50/50 chance of surviving the 21st century?

I have added a new book to my “hope to read soon” list.  It is titled, “Our Final Century,” by Martin Reese.  (Actually, I will probably read Our Final Hour, also by Martin Reese, instead.)  According to Amazon.com, “Sir Martin Rees FRS is the most eminent cosmologist in Britain, the Astronomer Royal and Professor at Cambridge. He lives in Cambridge.”

What he says in the book is quite distrubing.  Essentially, he puts the human race’s chances of surviving the 21st century at 50/50.

And I have to say, 208 pages in to Thomas Friedman’s ‘Hot, Flat, and Crowded,’ a 50% chance of human self-destruction in the 21st century is not implausible.

Here is the Amazon.com editorial review:

“‘It matters that one should understand the provenance of this important and disturbing book. It is not another futurological diatribe saying that the end is nigh, but a lucid, calm, profoundly well-informed work by a distinguished scientist, whose humanity – evidenced by a serious ethical commitment and a quiet sense of humour- balances the dispassionate logic with which he surveys his subject: the multitude of threats facing humanity in the twenty-first century from error and terror in the nuclear, biological and environmental spheres.’ Literary Review”

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