“Sixth Extinction” a window to our past and present

Camille Weber, For the Review

Throughout most of the human race’s history, the natural world around us is at best indifferent.

For tens of thousands of years, humans and other species have had to fight for survival in order to maintain their existence on Earth.

Recently, however, mankind has evolved into the dominant species.

Because of our advanced ability to adapt and manipulate the world around us, humans have drastically changed the Earth’s ecological landscape.

Although among scientists it is widely accepted that extinction is a natural feature of biodiversity on Earth, could it also be true that human’s may be to blame for the rapid decline of various species in the Earth’s recent history?

As the title implies, Elizabeth Kolbert’s “The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History” obviously leans toward the position of a sixth, human-caused mass extinction.

Through a combination of historical background in the development of the evolution theory and her own personal narrative, Kolbert is able to make the text incredibly coherent and accessible.

Despite its length, the book is a fairly easy read and its unique literary-journalistic style appeals to both students planning on pursuing a career in the sciences and individuals with interests in the arts and humanities.

Although Kolbert’s work may not leave readers feeling especially optimistic about the earth’s future, Kolbert does acknowledge the rigor and commitment many individuals and organizations go to in order to protect certain species in decline.

The book is surprisingly informative in areas such as marketing, linguistics, history, economics and politics as they are all mentioned in relation to the study of the Earth’s ecology.

As the book is interdisciplinary in nature, it also touches on issues concerning ethics and the overall reason why humans should take preservation and restoration efforts of different biospheres more seriously.

Kolbert utilizes stunning examples ranging from species that are on the verge of extinction such as the Panamanian golden frog, to the shocking speed of the extinction process in the case of the original penguin (The Great Auk), and eventually touching upon more current examples of species in decline such as the Sumatran Rhino and the Great Barrier Reef.

Kolbert even manages to appeal to individuals particularly interested in genetics as she interweaves the concept of the modern human as a hybrid-species into the tail-end of her work.

By building upon and often times rejecting their predecessor’s findings, present day man is presented with the greatest understanding of the world’s history than at any other point in human existence.

The only catch, according to Kolbert, is whether or not we are able to interpret that information as it reveals itself to us.