The sixth extinction an unnatural history

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Summary

Draws on the work of geologists, botanists, marine biologists and other researchers to discuss the five devastating mass extinctions on Earth and predicts the coming of a sixth.

Contents

The sixth extinction
The mastodon's molars
The original penguin
The luck of the ammonites
Welcome to the Anthropocene
The sea around us
Dropping acid
The forest and the trees
Islands on dry land
The new Pangaea
The rhino gets an ultrasound
The madness gene
The thing with feathers.

Published Reviews

Booklist Review: "*Starred Review* It didn't take long for Homo sapiens to begin reassembling the biosphere, observes Kolbert, a Heinz Award-winning New Yorker staff writer and author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change (2006). By burning fossil fuels, we are rapidly changing the atmosphere, the oceans, and the climate, forcing potentially millions of species into extinction. Five watershed events in the deep past decimated life on earth, hence the designation Sixth Extinction for today's ­human-propelled crisis. To lay the groundwork for understanding this massive die-off, Kolbert crisply tells the stories of such earlier losses as the American mastodon and the great auk and provides an orienting overview of evolutionary and ecological science. She then chronicles her adventures in the field with biologists, botanists, and geologists investigating the threats against amphibians, bats, coral, and rhinos. Intrepid and astute, Kolbert combines vivid, informed, and awestruck descriptions of natural wonders, from rain forests to the Great Barrier Reef, and wryly amusing tales about such dicey situations as nearly grabbing onto a tree branch harboring a fist-sized tarantula, swimming among poisonous jellyfish, and venturing into a bat cave; each dispatch is laced with running explanations of urgent scientific inquiries and disquieting findings. Rendered with rare, resolute, and resounding clarity, Kolbert's compelling and enlightening report forthrightly addresses the most significant topic of our lives.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist"
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Publisher's Weekly Review: "New Yorker staff writer Kolbert (Field Notes from a Catastrophe) accomplishes an amazing feat in her latest book, which superbly blends the depressing facts associated with rampant species extinctions and impending ecosystem collapse with stellar writing to produce a text that is accessible, witty, scientifically accurate, and impossible to put down. The eponymous extinction refers to the fact that the current rate of species loss is approaching that of the mass extinctions that ended five previous geologic epochs. Kolbert's reporting takes her from the Andes to the Great Barrier Reef, and from a bare rock island off the coast of Iceland to a cave near Albany, N.Y. Throughout, she combines a historical perspective with the best modern science on offer, while bringing both scientists and species to life. As dire as our problems are today, Kolbert explains that they did not begin with the industrial revolution: "Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it's not clear that he ever really did." Kolbert, however, offers some optimism based on the passion the concept of extinction evokes: "Such is the pain the loss of a single species causes that we're willing to perform ultrasounds on rhinos and handjobs on crows." (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Additional Information

Subjects	Mass extinctions Extinction (Biology) Environmental disasters Nature Science Nonfiction History Electronic books.
Publisher	New York :Henry Holt and Co.,2014 Henry Holt and Co.2014
Edition	1st ed.
Contributors	OverDrive, Inc.
Language	English
System Details	Mode of access: World Wide Web. Format: Adobe EPUB eBook Format: Kindle Book Format: OverDrive Read Requires Adobe Digital Editions or Amazon Kindle
Description	1 online resource
Bibliography Notes	Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-304) and index.
ISBN	9780805099799 9780805099799
Other	Classic View