The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Korbert Summary

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 most surprising aspect of this article was that humans today are said to be the cause of the sixth extinction. This was surprising to me because I did not know our planet has been impacted so much by our existence. Also, it surprised me because I have recently heard about how we were trying to fix our planet. The sixth extinction is horrible. Also, because we do not yet know the full extinct of our actions, the ramifications of our actions have yet to harm humankind. If we keep going we may not exist in 1,000

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.

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 chapter then moves to Kolbert’s experience with ammonite fossils in Princeton, New Jersey. While the distinct spiral shape of ammonites is well-known and agreed upon, the exact shape and structure of the mollusk in the shell is heavily debated. Ammonites are then compared to nautiluses, living animals that heavily resemble ammonites, in terms of why one species was able to flourish, while the other was wiped out. Chapter five lays out the concept that ordinarily species go extinct at a gradual, slow pacing, unless of course there is a catastrophic event, such as human meddling or a giant asteroid, in which case the extinction process is expedited. The extinct species that Kolbert studies in this chapter is the graptolite, a long, thin, V-shaped marine animal. The extinction of grapolite is theorized to be due to a drastic change in the ocean. Kolbert additionally tells a theory that, in the future, rats will be the predominant race on Earth, overtaking even humans. This is all based on the fact that humans have too drastically changed the Earth’s composition and wherever humans go and change, rats are there to follow. Thus we are ushering in the Anthropocene, or the “age of humans,” a time period in which humans have wrecked up the planet to the point of no

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 Sixth Extinction is a chapter found in a book titled, “The Sixth Extinction An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert”. This chapter addresses extinction or the termination of a group. The story takes place in The Panamanian town of El Valle de Anton. The story focuses on the toxic species called the golden frog. For some unknown reason(s), the golden frogs began to disappear.

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.

Summary: In a first person journey that brings her readers around the world, Elizabeth Kolbert researches and explains the effects of human domination on the planet and its resources. Using historical findings of previous extinctions in comparison to earth’s present state she attempts to provide cause and warning for mankind’s seemingly apocalyptic future. Her book, “The Sixth Extinction: an Unnatural History” delves deep into the idea that humanity is currently in the midst of the sixth period of extinction since the beginning of all life. Determined to warn the world of its destructive path, she examines the effects the human race has had (and will continue to have) on other species such as frogs, coral reefs, plants, water creatures, and many mammals while giving a brief yet thorough history lesson of the past five major extinctions that occurred prior to the appearance of Homo sapiens.

Chapter 2: In chapter two of The Sixth Extinction the book explains how extinction is one of the first scientific concepts that children learn in school. Also, it talks about how children in the modern times know more about extinction than scientists did hundreds of years ago. Scientists first theorized the concept of extinction in the late 18th century. In this chapter the book also talked about how a naturalist named Georges Cuvier studied the fossils of an extinct animal called the American Mastodon, or Mammut Americanum, and decided that this creature, like many others, must have all died in the past. In his lifetime, many of Cuvier’s ideas about extinction were harshly criticized, but now, hundreds of years later, Cuvier is praised for

The first thing to know about this particular mass extinction is the species that inhibited the earth

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.

Over 98% of all organisms that have lived on Earth are now extinct. A mass extinction event occurs when a large number of species die out within a small time frame (relative to the age of Earth). Mass extinctions are intensively studied for both cause and effect, as there is usually room for debate regarding catalysts that precede the extinction and the massive influx of new biological species that follows. There have been five major mass extinctions, dubbed the “Big Five,” that have wiped out at least 50% of the species living at those times. The most well known mass extinction of the Big Five, with the decimation of every species of non-avian dinosaur, is the Cretaceous-Paleogene

About 65 million years ago, an asteroid is said to have crashed off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. This crash is what some scientists believe to be the reason the dinosaurs went extinct. The first to believe that impact was the cause of the extinction were the father-son duo of Luis and Walter Alvarez. They think that because of the crash the sun was blocked out by dense clouds of dust. The crash also most likely didn’t kill just the dinosaurs but, according to PBS, “...caused the extinction of just the dinosaurs, but of up to 70 percent of all plants and animals living at the time.”