Schnaucl's Reviews > Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody: The Terrifyingly Real Ways the World Wants You Dead

Four and a half stars.

Oh my god, we're all going to die!*

*Eventually. Somehow.

This book covers a range of topics from things which almost wiped out humanity/life on earth to things that might do so in the future. It's written with a lot of humor and in the tone of your local newscast (2 flakes of snow = WINTER BLAST 2010).

Some of the things that almost killed us were pretty unnerving. There was the Russian, who, at the height of the Cold War had to decide within seconds that despite what the computer told him the US was not actually launching nukes and had to talk his superiors down from retaliating with their own nukes, thus preventing thermonuclear war (and then being demoted for it).

Then there was that attempt to turn leftover plant matter into alcohol via genetically modified organisms. Something that very nearly got released because the EPA guidelines require testing these things on sterile dirt and that was fine. Of course, when you tested in on non-sterile dirt all the plants died almost instantly from alcohol poisoning.

Most of the things that could wipe us out (or at least, wipe out a large segment of humanity) are things we've all heard about, asteroids, megatsunamis, problems with genetically modified food, etc. It still makes for a very interesting (and quite funny) read.