This term was popularized in 2000 by Paul Crutzen, a Dutch chemist who shared the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the depleting effects of certain compounds on atmospheric ozone. Kolbert’s book, “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History,” is a bridging of the past and present, of scientific history and current research that sheds light on the devastating effects of human activity and the impacts of climate change on global biodiversity, which a number of recent studies have shown.Ĭentral to the book is the notion that industrialization and globalization have ushered in a new epoch, referred to by many as the Anthropocene. Elizabeth Kolbert places this sixth extinction in the context of life’s history, as we know it, which demonstrates the fact that “life is extremely resilient but not infinitely so.” Scientists today conclude that we have entered a sixth mass extinction period, with humans as the driving factor. The most recent and most familiar of these events occurred 66 million years ago, spelling the demise of the dinosaurs, among others. Over the past 500 million years, dramatic and catastrophic worldwide changes have completely reshaped the order of life.įive major episodes of mass extinction are known to have taken place. Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” is a book about the science and history of extinction and humanity’s role in a rapidly changing world.
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