دانلود کتاب آخرالزمان -چگونه فاجعه جهان ما را دگرگون کرد و می‌تواند آینده‌های جدیدی را رقم بزند

Seven thousand years ago, the world ended. The sea ate the land, creeping up shorelines with the steadiness of a predator closing in on its prey. First it devoured beaches. Then it filled river mouths and estuaries where fresh water flowed to the ocean, sending poisonous torrents of salt water upstream. It strangled the life out of the plants people collected and the animals they hunted and fished. At first, those people could learn to gather new plants and hunt different animals, but that only worked for a time. Eventually, the sea covered their homelands, and they had to find new ones. But as soon as they settled into the rhythms of a new place, learned which animals lived there and how best to hunt them, which plants would nourish and which would kill, the sea came again. The water followed them everywhere, relentless in its pursuit, all over the world. People who once lived on vast continents now found themselves on islands, cut off. Children paddled boats over the villages their grandparents had grown up in. Eventually the sea gave up, but the damage had been done. People were left living in a mere remnant of the world their ancestors once inhabited. Four thousand years ago, the world ended. The city was a marvel, almost a miracle. People came from far and wide to trade there, and many of them stayed to build their fortunes and their futures. Ideas, cultures, religions, and goods mixed and mingled, as did the people who brought them to the city. Life was exciting, so exciting, but also comfortable, with a government that busied itself building homes and roads to serve its booming population. And then the rains that filled the city’s reservoirs each year stopped falling. People lost faith in their leaders, and when those leaders were toppled there was no one to replace them. Pristine streets became trash dumps, and sturdy houses that had stood for generations were scavenged to build makeshift shacks. As their city disintegrated, so did people’s sense of citizenship, of belonging. They retreated into family and kin groups and turned on anyone deemed an outsider. People grew accustomed to going to sleep hungry and startling awake many times in the night, ever vigilant to possible attack. The lucky ones had somewhere else to go, and the smart ones left even if they didn’t. Eventually, the bustling city became an empty ruin, its orderly streets serving only its ghosts. Seven hundred years ago, the world ended. The people heard rumors of a plague sweeping across entire continents, and they knew it was only a matter of time before it reached their shores. But when it came, it was worse than anyone could have imagined. Half a city could die within a single year. The plague snuffed out entire family lines, with no one to remember or mourn them. Bodies piled up in the streets, and the gravediggers worked night and day until they, too, fell ill. Those who could afford it fled to the countryside, but nowhere was truly safe. The country was dotted with villages of the dead, their few survivors having staggered away from the homes they couldn’t maintain or bear to live in anymore. Life before the plague seemed like a distant memory, and no one could imagine an after.