How it is that humanity has brought itself, along with most other species, to the brink of extinction? In the Gilgamesh Gene Revisited, Russell-Jones provides a time-line analysis of man’s relationship with the natural world that stretches back deep into pre-history and illuminates the origins of many of our most cherished fables, myths and religious creeds, which provide our belief systems governing our world and political thinking today. Extinction is avoidable but do we, as sentient beings, possess the ability to change the way we think? This question is fundamental to the survival of the human species.

In this second edition, Dr Robin Russell-Jones expands on his vision of the human condition, providing new findings to many of our most abiding mysteries, including the origin of King Arthur and the Round Table, the Holy Grail and the meaning of the Trinity.

Gilgamesh was a vainglorious king who ruled the city of Uruk in Ancient Mesopotamia, allegedly around 2750 BC. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest narrative in existence, and it contains the blueprint for much of our environmentally destructive behaviour today. This implacable pursuit of fame and fortune, at the expense of the natural world, has proven so successful that plundering the Earth’s resources has become hard-wired into our thinking: hence the Gilgamesh Gene. Furthermore this quest for immortality is now regarded as a natural part of the human condition: whilst in reality it is deeply deviant, and contains the seeds of our own destruction.

As mankind rushes head-long into the Anthropocene, there is some hope as the author explains the steps we need to take to avert disaster: limiting human numbers; getting away from ever-expanding GDP as the only definition of progress; and urgently implementing the Global Carbon Incentive Fund as the most equitable, efficient and effective way of putting a price on carbon emissions globally.