The Doomsday Book

by Gordon Rattray Taylor

A terrifying roll call of man's sins against the earth as she plunges toward a future of sterility and filth. Doomsday...the fateful time when the trees and grass will burn up, the creatures of the sea will die, the air will fill with smoke, the daylight will vanish, and a third of mankind will perish. How close are we to that day of disaster Saint John foretold?

Genres: Science

335 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Nathan Chattaway · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it." is a saying that absolutely applies to this book. I'm a firm believer that Western Industrial civilisation is on the brink of collapse. So I've read quite a few of the "Doomsday" texts out there. I am particularly attracted to early forerunners in this critical genre, because in the present day they allow comparison with the reality which has rolled out since they were written. This provides a real world test of the assumptions and models made and used by the author. Which of course gives insight into whether the predicted collapse is or is not likely to unfold as the author has detailed.

Published in 1970, this book is important because it predates the publication of "Limits to Growth - a Report to the Club of Rome" by two years. Limits to Growth really threw the spanner into the works for a while, and prompted a flurry of similar themed books, but this stands alone.
Like Meadows et al were to do, Taylor really made an effort to study the relationships between various human activities and their consequences, and the feedback loops that were created. He believed that our hunger to adopt every new technology was making things worse rather than better in many ways. The best credibility I can attribute to this book, with the benefit of hindsight, is that James Howard Kunstler's excellent "Too Much Magic", published in 2012, can be considered a 40 year update of this book in terms of grand themes. How's that for Taylor's skill at systems analysis, big picture worldview and sheer accuracy of crystal ball gazing? Recommended reading if you want to live to see the end of this decade.

[John Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just finished reading The

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting view of 70s ecology

[Simon Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it's a bit dated now, it was interesting to see how many things predicted have occurred and which have not

[Shelley Mensing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never thought I would enjoy a time travel book! But the more I got into it the more I enjoyed it! Intriguing