Humankind dominates every feature of the Earth's natural system from the water cycle to the movements of pollutants through the sky. We are truly the God Species, and there is no turning back. In a radical departure from the traditional arguments about how to manage the planet, Mark Lynas shows just how it should be done. In 2008 Mark Lynas attended a meeting of leading scientists in Sweden when it suddenly dawned on him that what was being discussed represents a revolutionary new approach to maintaining the life of, and life on, our planet. For the first time, these scientists were beginning to understand not only that there are a number of processes, or systems, that are crucial to the stability and sustainability of human life on Earth, and not only that there is a 'boundary' value for each system, a level below which the Earth can function safely, above which it will spiral into catastrophe, but also, critically, that all these systems are intimately linked to each other and can only be properly understood and managed together, not individually. Climate change is just one of these systems; the others include the nitrogen cycle, land use, ocean acidity and so on. These scientists #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; the boundaries team, as Mark calls them #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; are suggesting that we need to move from a world of Mutually Assured Destruction of competing national interests to Mutually Assured Survival of co-operation and shared interest. The God Species is an incredibly important and timely next step in the debate on global warming.

Lead title Mark Lynas has been given exclusive access to the material being developed by #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;The Boundary Team#xE2;#xAC;" of scientists working at the cutting edge of proposed solutions to global warming. Mark will be a keynote speaker at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference on December 2009. Mark Lynas is a highly respected science writer, particularly on global warming. His previous book #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;Six Degrees#xE2;#xAC;" won The Royal Society Prize for Science Books in 2008, and was long-listed for the Orwell Prize.