The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

By Elizabeth Kolbert

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805092994
• ISBN13: 9780805092998
• Release Date: February 2014
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Better than the book by Leakey.

I own a copy of Elilzabeth Kolbert's book THE SIXTH EXTINCTION, and its companion volume, FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE, and they are the best books on the subject of human-caused climate change. The book on the Sixth Extinction by Dawkins and Leakey focuses mainly on previous extinctions, rather than the details of the present one. Kolbert's book goes into considerable detail about the many ways we are screwing up the Earth. Just to name ONE aspect I haven't seen covered adequately in other books, our continuing acidification of Earth's oceans is a threat to the survival of whole PHYLA of life, such as molluscs, crustaceans, porifera (sponges) and corals (subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria). Life is classified according to kingdom, phyla, class, order, family, genus and species, so this would result in major ecosystems collapse.

A beautiful way to explain a horrible, ongoing event

This book goes into the perfect amount of detail about the current extinction event, while also covering past extinction events. Kolbert includes personal stories to make the readers relate to her and the field she so obviously loves.