A Thematic Analysis Of The Extinction Of Animals

Stephen Gould’s essay “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” completely agrees with Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb’s essay “Argument, Critical Thinking, and Rationality.” Gould’s essay deals with three theories for the extinction of the dinosaurs, two of which he argues are entirely invalid because they are not in accordance with the basic rules of argument laid out by Williams and Colomb in their essay. Gould also states that the third theory of dinosaur extinction, natural disaster, follows all the rules that Williams and Colomb espouse, and thus is a sound argument. Gould, Williams, and Colomb all state that the world has a problem with irrational arguments being shoved down people’s throats, and call for a

In the two essays being discussed we learn that science has a vast range of definitions. Science is the effort to understand (or to understand better), the history of the natural world and how the natural world works with observable physical evidence as the base of understanding. Science is about how the hypothesis is developed and how well it is defended.

Extinction: A Radical History is a book published by writer, professor and activist Ashley Dawson. It was published on the 22nd of April 2016. Dawson talks about multiple broad subjects in his book like how Capitalism is the main source of mass extinction. By doing so, he takes into account the lengthy history of the Homo Sapiens species, their activities and their discoveries and how us, humans, have affected today’s biodiversity, and probably the future of our planet Earth. He also offers solutions but are they realistically possible? Today, we no longer face natural risks like asteroids and comets. As Dawson states we now face anthropogenic risks like climate change and biodiversity loss which leads to a change in the earth’s ecosystem.

De-extinction offers the possibility for extinct species to be brought back to life by reproductive cloning. Critics argue that de-extinction will reduce the will of society to protect endangered species, as well as harm the existing ecosystem upon species’ reintroduction. However, supporters argue that many species would be great candidates for de-extinction and will possibly be beneficial to the ecosystem. I will argue that de-extinction should not be pursued. I will argue that reintroduction of unextinct species could cause humanity to become disinterested in protecting endangered species due to the loss of finality of extinction. Furthermore, re-introduction of extinct species into ecosystems would negatively shift the balance, and may cause endangerment and potential extinction of otherwise unharmed populations.

When visiting museums such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York City we can get a first-hand look at some of the massive creatures like the wooly mammoth that used to roam our planet some 11,000 years ago. And after viewing the skeletons of such extraordinary creatures known as the megafauna we may ponder as to what event transpired to eliminate so many species. What we do know is the late Pleistocene era marked a time of fluctuating climate that coincided with the migration of people into the New World. During this period mammals such as the woolly mammoth and mastodons were becoming extinct. However, questions still remain to determine if it was because of severe climatic change, or possibly the extinctions occurred from over-hunting by humans, or possibly a combination of both? These are many of the concerns that have created the foundation for a serious debate among many scholars in the anthropology and archaeology community.

Five mass extinctions have occurred throughout the history of planet Earth. It is predicted by Author Elizabeth Kolbert, that a sixth extinction may be underway. The Sixth Extinction is a book in the viewpoint of Kolbert and narrates her travels around the globe while she studies numerous wildlife species. Kolbert claims that ¨Those of us alive today not only are witnessing one of the rarest events in life's history, we are also causing it,” (Kolbert, Page 8). Throughout her work, Kolbert claims that numerous species are decreasing in population due to harmful human activities, which could lead to a global disaster.

The sixth mass extinction is on the way and could be as massive as the extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs (Kolbert, 2014). Before learning more about the sixth mass extinction, you’ll have to first understand what biodiversity is and what will happen when you tamper with it. According to Anup Shah, author of Why is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares, biodiversity means the variety of life on Earth or in an ecosystem. Every species plays an important role in the ecosystem or in the world, no matter how big or small. A way to incorporate this into easier terms is the food chain or food web. Without a certain species in the cycle, you’ll be losing another species and so forth (Shah, 2014).

During Late Pleistocene a megafaunal mass extinction took place. It’s still debated whether humans are to blame for this, since this megafaunal extinction happened after the arrival of humans or if climate change is entirely to blame. Fossil evidence has been of great help in finding what factors might’ve caused this extinction. This mass extinction that took place is related to the Anthropocene because if humans were the main cause, humans need to be more careful now because their actions may lead to more extinctions. The observations made were the types of species that went extinct with climate change, and what humans did to contribute to this mass extinction.

Tell us about a community or cultural experience or any group gathering you have participated in recently that meant a lot to you.

The topic that I plan to write about is how the distinction between "human" and "animal" has blurred and altered. This topic reveals the control and domination that are innate to animal and human which obscures the role of characters. Animals share traits with humans in genetics, affection, and behaviors that all make them similar to each other. The narrative text I plan to use as my focus is "The Veldt" where kids addict to the fantasy world and kill their biological parent to save and permanently live with lions. The intimate relationship between kids and lions has overthrown the conventional human role where animal replaces the existence of the parent and eats them in their house. From the text, it reveals the manipulation from lions to

Everything changes over time, due to multiple reasons yet things still change for a reasons. Mammals today aren't exactly the same as the mammals 250 million years ago. Mammals were barely classified their own group once the extinction of dinosaurs but scientist have evidence to believe mammals have been around longer than the extinction of dinosaurs, approximately 150 million years before. In 2001, researchers reported that a fossil was found in China in the year 1985. It was the remains of a tiny, furry animal that was believed to be a relative of the living mammals today. Instead it didn’t live in our time, but lived 195 million years ago in the Early Jurassic period. The small ancient mammal had the name of Hadrocodium wui, and the

Same ecological extinction happened when humans migrated to America 16,000 years ago. When the northeastern Siberia and northwestern Alaska were connected due to low sea level, Homo sapiens migrated to Alaska. When the glaciers melted after 2000 years since their arrival in Alaska, people were able to travel to rest of the United States and eventually to South America. On their path to South America, humans led to extinction of 34 out of 48 genera of large mammals in North America and 50 out of 60 genera in South America (Harari, 2015). Barnosky et al. (2016) also states that there has been sufficient evidence to claim that lower 48 United States faced a positive correlation between a decline in megafauna population and in a decline in diversity

Are we on the brink of a sixth mass extinction? Many say yes, but there is also hard evidence saying no. Nonetheless, scientists can prove five mass extinctions in history. The first mass extinction happened roughly around 445 million years ago. It was named the Ordovician Extinction. The species affected were known as Graptolite, which are different types of sea creatures. Their demise on Earth lasted around only one million years. Around sixty to seventy percent of the species disappeared, and now the remaining species have evolved into something new. The extinction was likely because of a short and dangerous ice age, or the formation of the Appalachian mountains. It was likely that glaciers formed over the oceans and caused the sea levels to rapidly drop, killing the species.

It’s clear that a great extinction is coming from the evidence of the destruction of other species around us. The choices made by the human race have too often negatively affected the surrounding species. Tracy Wilson, the site director for HowStuffWorks.com, in an article for Animal Planet, states that

Since before the industrial evolutions humans have been pumping green house gasses—carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons— into the atmosphere however, it wasn’t until recently that the amounts being produced are shoving the Earth into a sixth extinction. While the causes of this upcoming extinction are constantly debated on it has earned itself the name Holocene extinction. This name is derived from the theory that humans are the main contributors to this extinction. To investigate the cause Elizabeth Kolbert, and American journalist and professor at Williams College, took the world on a wild and saddening journey on the human contribution to this looming extinction in her novel, The Sixth Extinction; An Unnatural History. Not only does Kolbert’s book explain how humans have contributed to global warming and its effects on life on land but also ocean acidification and how life under the sea has changed over the years.