Unstoppable Us, Vol. 1

Illustrated by Ricard Zaplana Ruiz

“Animals and plants depend on one another, so if something happens to one kind of creature, it usually influences many others. And this law even applies to you” (169)

Unstoppable Us, vol. 1, is an illustrated nonfiction text adapted for young readers from Noah Yuval Harari’s best-selling nonfiction book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Volume 1 includes four chapters: “Humans Are Animals,” “The Sapiens’ Superpower,” “How Our Ancestors Lived,” and “Where Did All the Animals Go?” Together, these chapters tell the story of “how the humans became the rules or planet Earth” (179). Highlights of this story include the evolution of Homo Sapiens, the extinctions of Neanderthals and other Homo species, the cognitive revolution, and the ecological impacts of the expansion of Sapiens across the globe. Unstoppable Us, vol. 1 offers almost the same story as Harari’s other adaptation: the graphic novel Sapiens: A Graphic History, The Birth of Humankind Vol. 1.

This book can help spark nuanced discussions about anthropocentrism, animism, evolution, animal extinctions, deep time and the power of stories to shape societies. By starting with human evolution and ending at the point when Sapiens outpaced evolution with the invention of technology, this narrative generates a number of climate literacy realizations for the young reader. In chapters 1 and 3, the book challenges anthropocentrism and human exceptionalism by affirming that Sapiens are animals and that we are bound by the same natural laws as any other species. At the same time, especially in Chapter 3, the book asserts human exceptionalism on a cognitive level. Sapiens’ uniqueness, and the reason our species conquered the world, consists in our ability to tell stories that enable large-scale cooperation over vast areas and periods of time. Chapter 3, describing lives in pre-agricultural societies, can be used to discuss the origin of kinship with animals and animistic beliefs based on these societies’ worldviews that affirmed the world’s aliveness. Chapter 4, in turn, raises questions about Sapiens’ responsibility for animal extinctions, past and present. The chapter stresses our responsibility to a living Earth as a new and crucial discovery: “When our ancestors caused the [first mass extinction] they didn’t know what they were doing. But we can’t use this excuse today. We know what we’re doing to lions, elephants, whales, and dolphins. We’re responsible for their future. And no matter how young you are, you can do something about it” (174). Even though the book does not mention the climate emergency, Harari admits that “We often do very impactful things without realizing what we’re doing” (167). The last part of Chapter 4 affirms that since we already know about the emergency of animal extinctions, now is the time to again use our superpower of telling stories to help stop ecological destruction.

These three key realizations—that humans are animals, dependent on other forms of biological life; that we have unintentionally caused multiple extinctions of other species; and that we can use stories to reimagine our relationship with the world—help ground the climate emergency in the larger narrative of humanity’s relationship with the Earth. Harari’s history of Sapiens as a species contextualizes modern, post-industrial human society as a mere moment in deep time. This geologic context has the power to shift a reader’s worldview away from anthropocentrism and further toward ecocentrism.

©2023 ClimateLit (Marek Oziewicz)

More:

Publisher: Bright Matter Books, 2022

Pages: 185

Lexile Score: 950L

ISBN: 978-0-593-64346-4

Audience: Ages 14+, Ages 8-13

Format: Nonfiction

Topics: Animism, Anthropocentrism, Climate Emergency, Climate Literacy, Deep Time, Earth's Aliveness, Ecocentrism, Environmental Destruction, Evolution, Extinction, Hunter-Gatherers, Kinship with Animals, Prehistory, Storytelling