The Sixth Extinction: Analysis

Imagine a world where one extinct animal causes chaos. It eats all the plants and invades other animals territory. Animals are dropping like flies due to one extinct, no longer existing, animal being brought into the world once again this time by humans. Humans also can be the cause of extinction hunting, destroying an animal's home, pollution, and introduction of alien species are just a few ways that we can cause extinction of an animal. Extinction can also occur naturally when disease is spread, or an invasive species takes over. I believe that we should not bring back extinct creatures for three distinct reasons. De- extinction could hinder conservation efforts,de-extinction attempts have failed, and finally bringing back extinct

Instructions: Answer the following questions regarding your reading. Be as brief as possible but as detailed as needed to show me your understanding of the book and the question. Type your answers below each question and leave with me after final exam. Late submissions will be penalized 25% per day.

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

Being informed about what is going on around the world, for example how the sixth mass extinction has and is occurring, is exactly what Elizabeth Kolbert teaches in the book The Sixth Extinction. I can honestly say that I did not know that there were all these mechanisms of extinction going on. The mechanisms that Kolbert addresses in this book are invasive species, catastrophe, human overexploitation of resources, ocean acidification, and habitat fragmentation.

The advent of functional analysis (Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982/1994) and functional assessments (Dunlap & Kern, 1993) have provided behavior analysists with great ability to provide effective treatment for their clients. One common topic of research is the treatment of escape-maintained behaviors.

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.

There have been five major mass extinction on earth triggered by a distinguishable event, but in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert writes of the narrative of the sixth extinction caused directly by human impact. The book identifies the effects of human activity on how, over humans history on earth, the natural world has been affected. Every environmental impact stems into three basic groups of global problems to nature: Pollution, Habitat loss and Invasive Species. Kolbert explains that each impact can be traced back to one source, human industrial development. With each impact various types of life in the natural world are affected. Deforestation, urbanization, and sea level rise contribute to habitat loss worldwide. When humans began to travel they also brought invasive species and disease along with them; as boats only became bigger more and more invasive species travel. This reverse engineering of the planet species, brings new species that don’t have any natural predators, thus having an easier time driving native species out to endangerment or extinction. The different outcomes that come from human pollution is separated throughout the book, but the idea remains constant; with the development of human culture, pollution has drastically impacted a vast extent of species habitats and their environment.

The first article, written the day before the election by Michael Barbaro, Ashley Parker and Amy Chozick, was titled, “Optimism From Hilary Clinton and Darkness From Donald Trump at Campaign’s End”. The title of this piece oozed the confidence that Hilary Clinton would win the Presidential Election. The article portrays the election as over, with Hilary Clinton coming out victorious. Throughout the piece the authors used a story telling tone. For instance, they used embellishing words like, “frenzied, clashing, sprawling” (Barbaro). The New York Times certainty of Hilary winning is shown through multiple quotes. To illustrate this, the authors write about

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

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

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.

This article captured my attention because extinction is a major problem that occurs around the world with the increase in carelessness of people. great apes are beloved animals that are integral to nature, and the extinction of the great apes can be devastating to the balance of nature. Great apes are animals that are not often thought to be extinct because they are such as well known species of animal, so the fact that four out of six great apes are nearing extinction is a big problem. This article also captured my attention because the title makes a very broad and serious claim. Saying that “four out of six great apes are one step towards extinction” is very serious and makes it seem like the majority of the great ape population will be

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.

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.

The book I chose to do a report over is called Under the Sea-Wind by Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson is an environmental writer who has written multiple books over issues happen in the natural world around us. In Under the Sea-Wind tells the story of animal behavior through descriptive and poet writing. The novel is split up into three separate stories. Book 1 is called EDGE OF SEA, book 2 is called THE GULL’S WAY, and the last book, or book 3, is called RIVER AND SEA. Each book focuses in on a specific animal and how it travels during its life cycle. Each book tackles a separate problem that is troubling the life form of that location. Carson uses fiction style writing influences to express the real problems faced by organisms on the shore, in the open sea, and moving water that humans otherwise would not have known. Carson covers migration and seasonal change, the difficulty for fish (or other animals) to grow up in the ocean, and the lesser known lives of ocean animals in the deep abyss.