The Sixth Extinction
Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, 2014
Introduction
Central to Elizabeth Kolbert’s 2014 publication is the assertion that globalization coupled with industrialization have paved the way for a new epoch, the Anthropocene. Dubbed The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, the text explains “Anthropocene” as a period of “a human-dominated geological" age that will see humanity usher the world into its next mass extinction (Kolbert 108). Invented in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Laureate, and Dutch chemist, Anthropocene as a concept captured a “human-dominated” era that began “11,700 years ago,” at the closing of the last ice age, and continues to this day (Kolbert 107). The excessive uses of natural resources to …show more content…
As evidence to her claims, Kolbert provides her readers with a blend of personal studies and collected information from past scientific researches into the earth’s history. For that reason, The Sixth Extinction serves as a bridge between the past and the present to highlight the devastating effects that a complex blend of human activities and climate change have rendered on global biodiversity. Subsequently, across the thirteen chapters that make up the subject text, readers have insight into past extinctions and their correlation to present day studies that hint at yet another …show more content…
In other words, the fact that the author includes the findings of various scientists as evidence of The Sixth Extinction and the use of daily factors to reinstate her ideas further is pure genius. Personally, I know little about amphibians and bats, but I certainly am a witness to the industrial societies that make up much of the country and the accompanying populaces. Still, assuming that the world would end because humans have too many factories seems farfetched especially when one bases such an argument on the resilience of frogs and bats, creatures that are significantly smaller than people are. A mass extinction might be underway, but there is no guarantee that it will wipe out humanity: unless a meteorite hits the earth again, smaller creatures remain the only ones at
Introduction
Central to Elizabeth Kolbert’s 2014 publication is the assertion that globalization coupled with industrialization have paved the way for a new epoch, the Anthropocene. Dubbed The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, the text explains “Anthropocene” as a period of “a human-dominated geological" age that will see humanity usher the world into its next mass extinction (Kolbert 108). Invented in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, a Nobel Laureate, and Dutch chemist, Anthropocene as a concept captured a “human-dominated” era that began “11,700 years ago,” at the closing of the last ice age, and continues to this day (Kolbert 107). The excessive uses of natural resources to …show more content…
As evidence to her claims, Kolbert provides her readers with a blend of personal studies and collected information from past scientific researches into the earth’s history. For that reason, The Sixth Extinction serves as a bridge between the past and the present to highlight the devastating effects that a complex blend of human activities and climate change have rendered on global biodiversity. Subsequently, across the thirteen chapters that make up the subject text, readers have insight into past extinctions and their correlation to present day studies that hint at yet another …show more content…
In other words, the fact that the author includes the findings of various scientists as evidence of The Sixth Extinction and the use of daily factors to reinstate her ideas further is pure genius. Personally, I know little about amphibians and bats, but I certainly am a witness to the industrial societies that make up much of the country and the accompanying populaces. Still, assuming that the world would end because humans have too many factories seems farfetched especially when one bases such an argument on the resilience of frogs and bats, creatures that are significantly smaller than people are. A mass extinction might be underway, but there is no guarantee that it will wipe out humanity: unless a meteorite hits the earth again, smaller creatures remain the only ones at