The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Elizabeth Kolbert

Feb 2014 · Sold by Henry Holt and Company

About this ebook

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. 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. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino.

Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Ratings and reviews

Don't normally read too much natural history, glad I read this one though. The processes of this mass extinction as described seem pretty much irreversible, so that's a little depressing. But some small victories still seem attainable, such as banning DDT and creating (and funding) the EPA. And being simply aware of mankind's impact on the world is valuable.

Before I read this book I want to say a few words. From the title of the book, I gather that this book is going to explain the scientific reasons genocides occur every few generations. If the book is about this, I will later explain why it's not. I personally believe that many extinction level events were deliberately caused by certain people or non-humans we believe to be human. We'll see. For now I'm going to give it 5 stars since it wouldn't be fair to go in the opposite direction before I even read the book, which starts right now.

This book will scare the hell out of you. This book looks like it should be in the fiction section, but no. It's real. "This time We are the asteroid"

About the author

Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.