The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is by Elizabeth Kolbert. Kolbert is an American journalist, observer, author, and staff writer at The New Yorker. The Sixth Extinction won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015; I chose this nonfiction book because I hadn’t heard of the concept of a sixth extinction. I had previously learned of multiple extinctions that occurred in the Cretaceous, Ordovician, Permian, and Triassic-Jurassic periods, but I became curious just by the thought of what Kolbert meant by a sixth extinction. She claims that this extinction could be the most devastating yet due to humans, and gives different descriptions of species that have gone extinct either because of natural events or because of humans. The book covers the previous
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She vividly describes her journeys to observe various species, interviews with researchers, and uses other visuals to explain to the reader the meaning and impact of a sixth extinction in our modern day society. She also uses a wide range of species to convey this message, which I found to be one of the most unique parts of the book. For instance, she accurately depicts the extinction of Panamanian golden frogs, the American mastodon, the great auk, amniotes, etc. After this, however, she concludes the book with concern: “Right now…we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed…and it will, unfortunately, be our most enduring legacy. The Sixth Extinction will continue to determine the course of life…” (268-269). This shows the main message Kolbert is trying to emphasize: the impact that the next extinction could have and how we, as humans, are contributing to its …show more content…
The visuals, including diagrams, charts, and images, all helped convey her message. She also adds vivid detail in each chapter, which makes this book a fascinating read and shows that it is immensely well written. As with all books, there was a little room for improvement. For example, sometimes there was too much irrelevant detail about a particular biological species, such as the Panamanian “Gold” Frogs in the first chapter. Apart from these trivial facts, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Sixth Extinction because it made me aware of the damage that human beings are causing to the biodiversity across the planet. Kolbert successfully informs and cautions readers about the next potential massive extinction. I would definitely recommend this book to the general reader or anyone with an interest in biology or the
She vividly describes her journeys to observe various species, interviews with researchers, and uses other visuals to explain to the reader the meaning and impact of a sixth extinction in our modern day society. She also uses a wide range of species to convey this message, which I found to be one of the most unique parts of the book. For instance, she accurately depicts the extinction of Panamanian golden frogs, the American mastodon, the great auk, amniotes, etc. After this, however, she concludes the book with concern: “Right now…we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed…and it will, unfortunately, be our most enduring legacy. The Sixth Extinction will continue to determine the course of life…” (268-269). This shows the main message Kolbert is trying to emphasize: the impact that the next extinction could have and how we, as humans, are contributing to its …show more content…
The visuals, including diagrams, charts, and images, all helped convey her message. She also adds vivid detail in each chapter, which makes this book a fascinating read and shows that it is immensely well written. As with all books, there was a little room for improvement. For example, sometimes there was too much irrelevant detail about a particular biological species, such as the Panamanian “Gold” Frogs in the first chapter. Apart from these trivial facts, I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Sixth Extinction because it made me aware of the damage that human beings are causing to the biodiversity across the planet. Kolbert successfully informs and cautions readers about the next potential massive extinction. I would definitely recommend this book to the general reader or anyone with an interest in biology or the