Could human imagination save us from extinction? | Andrew Simms

We have been driving many species to extinction, seemingly without a care about who and what we push over the edge, including ourselves. But our ability to empathise may be key to our survival

If you wandered around planet Earth 100,000 years ago you would have come across at least half a dozen distinct species, or sub-species, of human. At least one, Homo erectus, centred around East Asia, lasted for nearly two million years. That makes the duration of us, recognisably modern Homo sapiens, at around 200,000 years, seem modest.

It will remain so if Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is correct. He suggests on current trends we’ll be lucky to see out the millennium.

Related: Humans creating sixth great extinction of animal species, say scientists

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