The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History of the Earth's Lost Species

Nick Crisanti: This was a book that really grabbed a hold of me. Every chapter was different, and every chapter was entertaining and decidedly interesting. The history of extinctions, the effects of the Columbian exchange, deforestation, ocean acidification, climate change, evolutionary theories, etc., etc.! So many different yet related topics, told with verve, humor and insightfulness. Something as seemingly mundane as trees on a mountain in Peru or mollusk fossils in a creek in New Jersey, are strikingly not when examined by Elizabeth Kolbert within these pages. The theme may be somber, but the trip is exceedingly lively. I highly recommend this.

United States on Sep 08, 2023

Daniel Jones: A really interesting perspective on the ups and downs of life on earth. Step bye step the book examines the evidence for each of the elements of the climate crisis and summarises the challenges ahead. Worth reading.

United Kingdom on Sep 03, 2023

Karthick S: I grew up in a Sub Urban area with lot of vegetation around. As I grew up, the place was just being swallowed up by more and more houses. One of the hassles of vegetation was that we used to get lot of uninvited guests to our home - weird insects, bats, worms and scary Snakes. One of the key lessons I was taught as a kid was what to do to protect myself from Snakes. I vividly remember a few six foot long venomous Vipers that we spotted in home. Today, the area has completely become an Urban jungle. Snakes have disappeared with more houses. We are happy with the fact that we need not worry about those snakes. But what has happened to those snakes? How has the loss of habitat affected them? What about other harmless insects and bats? A few endemic species could have disappeared. All because of us - Human Beings. This book, 'The Sixth Extinction' is exactly about this. How Human Beings are causing the sixth major extinction event of the world and how it is happening right in front of our eyes.

I was looking for a book in the last minute before my flight. I randomly came across this book on Amazon and decided to give it a shot. One thing I worried was that the book would turn...

India on Nov 01, 2017

Jon Morgan: This book suggests that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction event, and that it is human caused.
There are really two threads interleaved through this book.
The first is a discussion of the past five mass extinction events: how we learned about them, what we know (or guess) about their cause, and what the results were.
The second is a discussion of (mostly) human caused extinctions in the recent past, and current threats.
How we have subverted the "natural order" to stay alive and to spread round the world, and some of the consequences (mostly unintended) of our resource hunger and need to control and shape the world.

It comments on the curious fact (probably not coincidental) that we only started to learn the full magnitude of past extinction events as we set up a present one. Without global travel we might never have known the full diversity of life and how much geographical isolation was responsible for it. But that same global travel completely undermines that geographical isolation and changes the balance of species. We are picking the winners and losers: sometimes deliberately, but often accidentally.

One of the most important things I...

Australia on Jan 08, 2017

John Anderson: The evidence and experts consulted for this book support the theory that homo sapiens have initiated the Anthropocene: the next great extinction which is occuring now, in real time. Kolbert writes, 'The current extinction has its own novel cause: not an asteroid or a massive volcanic eruption but 'one weedy species'' (p. 266). We are the weeds, equipped with what we call 'intelligence'. This unique capacity may be a mutation with the capacity to wipe out all or most forms of life on earth.

Our tendency to destroy other plant and animal species is not an artifact of industrialization. The extinction began early in the Holocene era (9700 BC) coincided with the expanding numbers of humans and their activities. Starting with the largest and slowest moving mammals (such as the American mastodon some 13,000 years ago), the disappearance of animals since the last ice age follows the path of human migration. The brutality of our existence is underscored by the current status of large primates. 'Having cut down our sister species ' the Neanderthals and the Denisovan ' many generations ago, we're now working on our first and second cousins. By the time we're done, it's quite possible...

Canada on Sep 05, 2016

Richard Reese (author of Understanding Sustainability): The Sixth Extinction

I didn’t rush to read Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, The Sixth Extinction, because I imagined it would be a gloomy expose on the unfortunate consequences of way too much half-baked cleverness — and it was. But it’s also a fascinating story about the long saga of life on Earth, and the unclever antics of the latest primate species. It’s an outstanding book.

We have soared away into a fantasy world, where godlike humans spend their lives creating brilliant miracles. But when observed in a 450 million year timeframe, from this moment when a new mass extinction is gathering momentum, the wonders of progress and technological innovation lose their shine. Kolbert rips off our virtual reality headsets, and serves us powerful medicine, a feast of provocative news.

Today, the frog people are not feeling lucky. They have lived on this sweet planet for 400 million years, but many are now dying, because of a fungus called Bd. This fungus can live happily in the forest on its own, without an amphibian host, so endangered frogs rescued by scientists cannot be returned to the wild. The crisis began when humans transported frogs that carried the...

United States on Jun 21, 2015

Oparazzo: Seit es Leben auf der Erde gibt, hat es immer wieder Massensterben gegeben, die die Artenvielfalt dramatisch reduzierten. Fünf davon waren so einschneidend, dass sie im englischen Sprachraum heute als die Big Five bezeichnet werden; das letzte und bekannteste vor etwa 66 Millionen Jahren, als nach einem Kometeneinschlag die Hälfte aller Tierarten verschwand, darunter die Dinosaurier.

Und als unsere Vorfahren damit anfingen, ihr erstaunliches Gehirn zu entwickeln, setzten sie das in Gang, was die Journalistin Elizabeth Kolbert die Sechste Auslöschung nennt. Es begann damit, dass der Mensch plötzlich Tiere töten konnte, die größer, stärker und schneller war als er: Das Ende z. B. von Mammut und Mastodon, und auch des Säbelzahntigers, dem so nämlich die Beute ausging. Heute erleben wir nun einen vorläufigen Höhepunkt, bei dem wir die Tiere nicht mehr aktiv umbringen müssen (das tun wir natürlich auch und in großem Stil), sondern ihnen einfach die Lebensgrundlagen entziehen. Das ist ohnehin viel effizienter, nur wird es wohl dummerweise auch uns selber treffen. (Und das wiederum dürfte die Welt, so sie denn dazu in der Lage wäre, mit einer gewissen...

Germany on Feb 11, 2015

Ashutosh S. Jogalekar: Elizabeth Kolbert combines the sharp observational powers of a field biologist with the literary skill of a seasoned and thoughtful writer. In her previous book “Notes from a Field Catastrophe”, she travelled to far-flung parts of the globe to dig up stories on the deleterious effects of climate change. In her latest book she combines similar reporting from around the world with chapters from the history of science to bring us a noteworthy account of one of the most spectacular and important stories of biology and history – mass extinctions. There have been five documented big extinctions in history, with the most popular one being the death of the dinosaurs that was memorably caused by a meteorite. However we are probably now in the throes of a sixth extinction, and as Kolbert documents, at least parts of it are being caused by human beings’ destructive tendencies and our unquenchable thirst for natural resources. The concern for extinctions is not merely a discussion for the drawing rooms of bleeding-heart environmentalists; as a chemist, I am well-aware that about half of all drugs on the market are derived from natural sources. Every time we kill off another marine...

United States on Feb 26, 2014