“Those of us alive today not only are witnessing one of the rarest events in life’s history, we are also causing it. (Pg. 8)” This sentence describes the overall theme that Elizabeth Kolbert reiterates throughout her book, The Sixth Extinction. She discusses important conservation problems such as ocean acidification, invasive species and climate change in the context of how these things happened in the past and how humans are causing them today. The fact that the author describes how the things we are causing today, such as the disappearing coral reefs, have only happened several times in millions and millions of year of recordable history emphasizes the importance and implications of the events happening.
“The sixth extinction” is a novel in which the author combines history, her personal adventures, and dialogue with renowned scientists over many disciplines to describe the many threats posed to the fauna and flora around us today. What is amazing about this novel is Kolbert combines history, such as the story of how extinction was actually discovered, to tie together events happening in front of our eyes with thing’s already experienced. For example, Kolbert discusses the fossils of ancient animals which were first used to develop the theory of extinction in a historical context, and then visits the museum that actually holds the
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It is divided into chapters that discuss a myriad of problems being addressed in the conservation community, however Kolbet also ties in these problems together, so while the fungus decimating frog populations is first introduced in the first chapter, it is then again discussed in chapter 10 to highlight the problem of invasive species. Some of the main points made for why need conservation and why we are going through another mass extinction include: the lowering pH of the ocean, the movement of many fauna closer to the poles, and the fragmentation of environmental