Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and the author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History a book that won her a Pulitzer Prize. Born in 1961, Kolbert spent her childhood in Bronx New York and got her diploma from Mamaronek High School. She later joined Yale University to study her undergraduate in Literature. Since 1999, she has written for the New Yorker where she serves as a commentator and observer of the natural environment.
You have probably heard or read about how thousands of years ago there were dinosaurs and other animals that are extinct by now, the melting of glaciers and deterioration of the ozone layer being a result of environmental changes that are taking place. In her book, Elizabeth Kolbert talks about the factors that have contributed to more than 90% of species on earth to become extinct. The book addresses the five major extinctions that have shaped the planet we live in and postulates that we are in the middle of a sixth extinction as a result of erratic human behaviour.
The first chapter of the book opens with Kolbert (2015) visiting Panama to study golden frogs and fungi, in her study she finds out that, human beings might have introduced an invasive species which accelerated the extinction rate of these frogs. In this chapter, Kolbert introduces the idea of background extinction which she explains is expressed in terms of extinctions per million species-years (p. 15). She also presents mass destruction, which caused disappearance rates to spike with substantial biodiversity losses. In her analysis, she says “today, amphibians enjoy the dubious distinction of being the world’s most endangered class of animals; it’s been calculated that the group’s extinction rate could be as much as forty-five thousand times higher than the background rate” (p. 17).
Kolbert travels around the world to establish the extent of human activities and the impact on the environment. She describes how the cutting down of trees and burning of fossil fuels has led to the rice in acidity and temperature of ocean waters negatively impacting the marine life and activity. Her study of the Great Barrier Reef indicates the change of conditions in ocean water caused by human activities has made the coral cover decline by fifty per cent in the last thirty years (P. 138). Kolbert calls this age the Anthropocene period of the planet history, which is characterized by humans trying to manipulate their environment, which has led to the extinction of different animal and plant species across the globe. Kolbert uses secondary sources to solidify her findings; in the book, there are quotes from various scientific studies to give the reader perspective on the phenomenon of extinction. She uses her encounters to explain the scientific ideas; for example, the study of the Brazilian ant-birds teach us the relationships between different species in the islands.
The strong point that Kolbert makes throughout the book is the impact of human beings on other species she has describes humans as “Faustian” species who are in a quest to change everything in their path. Through the various social activities like creating agriculture and modifying of the vegetation on the earth’s surface to create room for the industrial revolution, the humans killed those animal species that could not adapt to the new environment. The factor that has hastened the sixth extinction according to Kolbert is human travel, in prehistoric times the modes of transport were not as developed as they are in the current age. That meant, humans were confined to small geographical locations and as such did not have much impact on their surroundings. The development of modern means of transport has led to the ease of movement to new ecosystems. In the process, humans shift the equilibrium that existed in such a habitat. This development of heavy machinery and equipment also hurts the environment through the emission of carbon dioxide that is slowly affecting the ozone layer.
It is not all doom and gloom in the book, Kolbert in chapter 11 of the book talks about the efforts scientists are making in an aim to save the species that are predicted to becoming extinct. She gives an example of the rhinoceros that scientists are trying to manipulate their production rate to make them produce quickly. She observes that our species have been able to survive through the stages of evolution due to our capacity to cooperate, use tools and language efficiently. This power that humans have that has led to the degradation of the environment she believes can be used to transform it by nurturing and protecting it. The different effort that humans have to make should be under the realization that we are already in the sixth extinction and that human thought and action should now more than ever be focused of changing the status quo. She says “certainly humans can be destructive and shortsighted; they can also be forward-thinking and altruistic. Time and time again, people have demonstrated that they’re willing to make sacrifices on those creatures’ behalf.”