The Sixth Extinction, An Unnatural History
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically diminished and died off. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But unlike the previous five extinctions, this one is triggered by humans—the burning of millions of years of Earth’s fossil fuels, destroying the world’s rainforests, rapidly developing land that is eliminating living space for the world’s species to live, and climate change brought on by human caused carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases that is wiping out multitudes of plant and animal species by making their world uninhabitable today.
Drawing on the work of numerous researchers in half a dozen disciplines—the author accompanies many of these researchers into the field, and introduces us to a dozen species–-some already gone, others facing extinction—some about to-–that are being affected by this sixth extinction. Through her stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around the world and traces the evolution of extinction as scientific concept. Each chapter has a particular species focus and through thirteen chapters the author presents various species in crisis, the probable reasons for their present state of emergency, and the efforts that are being undertaken to help and preserve them. Interwoven into the early chapters, is the history of the development of various scientific approaches to understanding historical epochs, eras and periods, fossil remains, and the development of evolutionary theory, whether by catastrophe or gradual change. Many say the sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy.
Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and is two-time winner of the National Magazine Award. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.
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