The Presentation The 6th Mass Extinction Essay

Biodiversity means the variety of life forms/organisms in an ecosystem, biome or entire planet. Globally, biodiversity is not evenly distributed. It generally increases from the poles towards the equator as around 50% of the world’s plants and animals live in tropical rainforests. This is because of the proximity to the equator causing a warmer, more moist, stable climate which means plants grow better and can support more species higher up in the food chain. Standard of living is the level of wealth, goods and

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

American journalist Elizabeth Kolbert authored The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History in 2014. This is a non-fictional account of what Kolbert had named "the sixth extinction": an extinction event caused by humans similar to ones that destroyed earlier forms of life, like the dinosaurs and megafauna.

In chapter 11 of The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert finds herself at the Cincinnati Zoo where she is told by Dr. Terri Roth that the Sumatran rhinos are going extinct. This also explains Dr. Roth’s numerous attempts to inseminate Suci, a Sumatran rhinoceros, artificially, but ultimately fails. Kolbert proceeds to talk about the history of the Sumatran rhinoceros, which were very common in the Himalayas, Borneo, and Sumatra. Apparently, a small number of rhinos were sent to American zoos in hopes of reproducing in captivity. Unfortunately, the animals’ diet consisted dry hay, when—contrary to popular belief--green leaves are a staple in the rhinos’ nutrition.

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

Panamanian golden frogs, the American mastodon, Neanderthals, coral reefs, and auks -- what do they have in common? They are all mentioned in Elizabeth Kolbert’s award-winning book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. In The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert relates the findings of her investigations into several extinctions recently reported, connecting them to several human activities such as habitat fragmentation and introducing nonnative and invasive species, while also giving the readers various history lessons. She tells about her adventures in Panama saving endangered frogs, visiting the island of the last two great auks known to man in Iceland, and even examining the fossilized teeth of an American mastodon in the French National Museum of Natural History.

Chapter 12 of the book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert is all about the differences between Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalenis) and modern humans (Homo sapiens). Most of the differences were explained clearly and concisely, but one was very contradictory. Could Neanderthals see beauty? I believe that yes, they could, just perhaps not in the exact same way that modern humans do. They could see the beauty of nature, the beauty of living things, like animals flowers, trees, and each other.

The book I choose The Sixth Extinction, is by a woman who is a journalist for The New Yorker. So when I did my search, articles by her were the first that presented themselves. I have to admit, I cheated a little bit in that I used the first three news links that were not by her.

But, this book has 13 chapters each explaining evidence of extinction, theories, or animals that had been extinct. Animals that were talked about included the Great Auks and Mammoths. Reasons for the extinctions were the obvious ones such as hunting and global warming.

Everyone in my generation has probably grown up seeing ads or watching videos about pollution or about the environment in general, so much, to the point that these constant reminders about protecting our planet are already part of the norm for us. While these reminders have had positive effects, like how more and more people have become informed of the Earth’s condition, many people, myself included, still remain indifferent to the threats our environment faces. I won’t lie; I’m no saint or crusader for the cause, but every now and then certain videos or articles strike a chord within me and makes me reflect on the way how I’ve been living affects the environment. One such article was the one we read last week in class, “The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert in the Upfront magazine.

Species diversity can help an ecosystem remain stable. The greater the number of species in an ecosystem, the greater the diversity of that ecosystem. This will make it harder for one species to overpower the rest.

The four billion year history of earth has witnessed five mass extinctions, and some scientists believe that we are on the verge of the sixth.1[1] If we are in the midst of the next mass extinction, we are in the very early stages of an evolving, and escalating process. The most recent, or fifth mass of the extinctions occurred 65 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods. Images of an asteroid colliding with the planet, decimating the dinosaur population have been in circulation since the early 80’s.2[2] Being the most recent mass extinction, thousands of scientists around the world have investigated it, and elementary school children are familiar with

Biodiversity presents occurrence of variety of species and their natural community in which they live. By the definition it is “The degree of variation of life forms within a given species, ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. It is a measure of the health of ecosystems and is in part a function of climate.” (Rutherford) Ecosystem is on the other hand, “ community and its abiotic environment”( Rutherford). Biodiversity exists in every ecosystem, weather it is big one, or just ecosystem of one garden, it has the same importance because without it nature loses its ability to perform major functions needed for life on Earth, as it is oxygen production. Trough this investigation, two different ecosystems will be explored and

Humans have existed since 200,000 years but the Earth has existed around 4.5 billion years. Nature has provided us with everything we have today - food, medicines, materials, chemicals, metals, minerals etc. It can only keep providing us when we maintain the right environment for it to exist. This environment depends on the biodiversity of Earth. The number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms and the various genes in these species, different ecosystems such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Hence Biodiversity impacts everything. We will discuss how Biodiversity plays a crucial role on social, environmental, and economic factors. We will also discuss what

Franck and Brownstone define biological diversity as 'the variety and variability of living organisms and the biological communities in which they live' (36). Decades of progress in both the scientific and political arenas have advanced environmental legislation to protect biodiversity at not only the ecosystem level, but for specific species and genetic material as well. Research has shown the importance of every organism and their role in the global ecosystem, and legislation has gradually matured to protect not only species which may become endangered, but the habitats they need to survive as well. Growing consciousness surrounding environmental issues has enabled these protections to be