Which First? explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Humanity and Mortality

  The chapter examines the separate fates of humanity and the Earth, questioning whether mankind will end before or after its planetary home.

• Nature and the Elements

  Climatic climacteric disasters are cited as potential causes of human extinction, highlighting the power of natural elements.

Key passages

• “End of the World has so far been used indifferently to mean the end of mankind and the end of this globe he inhabits. The two are not the same, and except in a case like head-on collision, planet and people vanishing in vapour together, will not be simultaneous.”

  The term 'End of the World' has been used ambiguously to refer both to the extinction of humanity and the destruction of the Earth, but these events are distinct and unlikely to occur at the same time unless there is a catastrophic collision.

  Clarifies the central distinction of the chapter.

• “Either man will predecease his home. One of the great climatic climacteric disasters will suffice to destroy him while hardly more than ruffling the earth’s surface; or quite other factors, of a kind different from any yet alluded to, may, in conjunction with or independently of natural change, sweep life but not earth away.”

  Humanity may die out before the Earth does, either from a major climate disaster that barely affects the planet, or from other non-natural causes that eliminate life without destroying the Earth itself.

  Outlines the possible scenarios for human extinction preceding planetary destruction.

• “Or, in certain strange circumstances, the race may outlive the world.”

  Alternatively, under unusual conditions, humanity could survive beyond the Earth's existence.

  Introduces the possibility of humanity outlasting the planet.