The Fourth Extinction : An Unnatural History By Elizabeth Kolbert

In chapter three of The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert describes how the Great Auk went extinct. The Great Auk is considered “the original penguin.” Sadly, they became extinct in the 1800s. They were found in North Atlantic; were it is cold. The Great Auks were killed by poachers. The poachers killed them for food, feathers, and even used them to keep their fires stoked to keep them warm. “You take a kettle with you into which you put a Penguin or two, you kindle a fire under it, and this fire is absolutely made of the unfortunate Penguins themselves.” So the questions are: “How do animals, such as corals, survive in an ever-changing environment?” and “How do humans play a role in increasing or causing

In the book The Sixth Extinction written by Elizabeth Kolbert there are a lot of examples that are going on in the world today and also examples of things that started when the first human being was around. This book talks about how we are in the sixth mass extinction, and that is caused by humans. Overall the book goes chapter by chapter and talks about the different mass extinctions there have been, and how they were caused, but also the book talks about different species that have gone extinct and the reasons why. For example the book talks about golden frogs that are located in Panama and how they were seen everywhere located in El Valle de Anton, but they suddenly started disappearing. They were disappearing because of a chytrid fungis cause by humans, when humans travel they were bring this fungis to different places, this ended up killing the frogs (Chapter 1, Kolbert). That is just one example, but throughout the book Kolbert talks about different extinctions like this and what caused them.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History details the continued loss of biodiversity that has occurred since the rise of mankind. Elizabeth Kolbert claims that we are now in the midst of a sixth mass extinction, and that, if precautionary measures are not taken, the loss of biodiversity would be catastrophic. Chapter one begins by describing the golden frogs in the town of El Valle de Antón, and how they were beginning to disappear. The frogs disappeared due to a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This fungus has spread around the world at a lightning-quick rate, killing all sorts of amphibious organisms at an unnatural rate. The cause of the rapid spreading of the fungus has been theorized to be due to humans inadvertently spreading

On a day to day basis most people take for granite the lives we get to live, along with putting to much value on the extra things such as materialistic items. Also, the majority of humans are too invested in their personal lives or with themselves that they do not look at the big picture of how what we are doing now will effect us later. As humans are routines in our lives can bring us harm, and within time a we may become the sixth extinction. I believe we threaten human existence as a species and it can eventually lead to destroying our own comfortable lives we have created for ourselves.

The non-fiction book that I decided to read was, “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” by Elizabeth Kolbert. What led me to picking this book was that it seemed the most interesting out of all of the non-fiction book selections. Since I already knew most of the reasons why animals went extinct, this book didn’t have an impact me. But when I previously learned about animals extinction, I was impacted because it let me know what happened to dead species species. Examples of this could include learning about the dinosaurs when I was younger or learning about climate change and hunting when I was in middle school.

The earth has been around for 4.6 billion years, and over this time 99.9% of all of the species that have existed on earth have gone extinct. (Barnosky, et al) Palaeontologists characterize mass extinctions as times in Earth’s history when the Earth loses more than three-quarters of its species in a geologically short period of time. This has occurred 5 times over the past 540 million years, and scientists are now suggesting it is happening a 6th time. We are in the midst of a sixth mass extinction that has the potential to wipe out many species of importance, and humans have a profound impact on it.

Global warming has been a controversial topic for years and some have even denied its existence; however, as more studies are being published every day in regards to our changing climate, it is hard to ignore this growing issue and how humans contribute to it. The term greenhouse gases refers to the group of gases that are primarily responsible for global warming and chief among these gases is carbon dioxide. Rising carbon dioxide levels can be attributed to a combination of burning fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum as well as deforestation in general ( Source A). To slow the effects of global warming, it is important for leaders in our society to consider their greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide, and make

There have been five well known extinctions on this earth. The one most well known is the mass extinction that ended the dinosaurs. Mass extinction is often described as the elimination of a large number of species in a short period of time. Despite what many think, the elimination of species is almost commonplace at this point. The Earth is currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and it’s been caused by the human race.

Habitat destruction, deforestation, ozone depletion, global warming, and poaching. These actions and ecological happenings are creating a world where animals are going extinct at rapid rates. Our world is on the brink of what scientists believe is the sixth mass extinction. Unlike the five previous mass extinction, the latest one killing a majority of the dinosaurs, the main causes for this current extinction are anthropogenic reasons, not natural events.

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.

Scientists have spent decades figuring out what is causing global warming. They have looked at the natural cycles and events that are known to influence climate. But the amount and pattern of warming that is been measured can 't be explained by these factors alone. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans. One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.

One of the biggest contributors to climate change and global warming as we know it are humans. Though it may be painful to comprehend the fact that we are the cause for the drastic changes that are currently occurring on planet Earth, we must face the truth. “Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the greenhouse effects – warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat

It has been said that the earth currently faces a sixth mass extinction due to the rising extinction rates that are growing far beyond ever before. The sad truth is that we as humans are one of the main reasons for the loss of all these species. There has never been so many different kinds of organisms to coexist and through deforestation, pollution release, and over harvesting we begin to see a decline in biodiversity. (Ehrlich and Ehrlich, 1981; Hughes et al., 1997; Vitousek, et al., 1997) This is referred to as the sixth mass extinction because at one point there were five other mass extinctions we had over a long period of time. This is the first wave to occur during the existence of Homo sapiens, and if it continues to grow and not have any reduction in intensity it could be early signals of the downfall of human civilization and the early demise of billions of people. The five previous mass extinction waves have occurred during the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous geologic periods. The next one to occur is sooner then we realize. Due to these issues we begin to ask the questions: 1) How many have gone extinct and what are the rates? 2) If we are currently in the sixth mass extinction, what does this mean for human life? 3) What can we do to change this sixth mass extinction?

Numerous restudies have linked global warming and climate change to human activities. They contribute to this vice by producing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during their day to day lives. Gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor trap heat in the air causing a rise in temperatures referred to as the greenhouse effect. Humans therefore, contribute to this effect by burning fossil fuels that have high concentrations of carbon dioxide. These fuels are oil, coal and natural gas. It is estimated that the current amount of CO2 in our atmosphere ids the highest in three past 650,000 years (NOAA National Weather Service, 2007). According to the fourth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the most of the observed rise in global temperatures is attributed to the significant increase in human development resulting in high greenhouse gases concentrations. From this study it is actually evident that yes humans also contribute to the global climatic change that is currently being experienced. For instance the oil that run in vehicles usually releases smoke to the air. The smoke largely contains burned carbon thereby adding to the gases. Most factories also use coal for burning. Coal contains large amounts of CO2 thus pollutes the atmosphere. Humans are also guilty of felling trees. This is very dangerous to our environment. Trees usually help reduce the amount of CO2 in the air as it uses it during the process of photosynthesis and releases oxygen to the atmosphere which we breathe in. Therefore, humans are largely to blame for the change in global climate that is currently being experienced.

Humans have had a great influence on our environment and surroundings for as long as we’ve been around. Global warming is just one of the influences we’ve had on our environment. Scientists claim that there are a variety of different reasons for global warming but the biggest factor is ourselves. The temperature of our planet is increasing at almost double the rate it was fifty years ago (Causes of Global Warming, 2017). This significant increase in temperature isn’t explained by a natural phenomenon alone. The only possible reason for this drastic temperature increase is the negative effect of greenhouse gases that are released in high quantities by humans (Causes of Global Warming, 2017). The United States Environmental Protection Agency defines greenhouse gases as “gases that trap heat in the atmosphere” (Overview of Greenhouse Gases, 2017). The greenhouse gases consist of Carbon Dioxide,