Scan barcode
fbroom's review against another edition
4.0
Humans are destroying their planet without even trying to. Many species went extinct and many more will become exitinct if we act the way we do.
Notes:
Chapter 1: The Sixth Extinction
Chapter 1 is about the Panamanian golden frogs which are almost extinct. Research later showed that a fungus “Chytrid Fungus” is the reason why frogs were dying. This kind of fungus though was not found naturally in Panama. Humans are how the fungus traveled from other places to Panama.
Chapter 2: The Mastodon’s Molars
In this chapter we get to know “George Cuvier” who was the first to say that natural catastrophes must have happened that caused mass extinction of many species. We also get introduced to the American Mastodon. Cuvier is the one refused to declare that the mastodon comes from the elephant family and gave it the name Mastodon.
Chapter 3: The Original Penguin
The story of the great auk, a bird which lived in Iceland. It didn’t fly. The settlers found the auk to be a great source of protein but they abused their power by hunting it to the point where it reached extinction.
Chapter 4: The Luck of the Ammonites
-
Chapter 5: Welcome to the Anthropocene
Increased levels of carbon dioxide caused the extinction of Graptolithina
“The Anthropocene is an informal geologic chronological term for the proposed epoch that began when human activities had a significant global impact on the Earth's ecosystems."
Chapter 6: The Sea Around Us
Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing since the industrial revolution. This carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the oceans to create carbonic acid which lowers the ph level of the ocean. When the ph level of the ocean drops, it causes a sharp decline in the life forms there.
Chapter 7: Dropping Acid
The story of coral reefs and the effect of the lowered ph level. Ocean acidification as learned by Kolbert will most likely cause the extinction of the coral reefs by the end of the century if the ph levels keeps dropping at this rate.
Chapter 8: The Forest and the Trees
-
Chapter 9: Islands on Dry Land
-
Chapter 10: The New Pangaea
-
Chapter 11: The Rhino Gets an Ultrasound
The Sumatran Rhino went extinct as forests were cut down in Sumatra. This chapter actually made kind of puzzled because the author went on to explain the massive efforts made to save the rhino, there were few left, three of them in the united states. it cost Cincinnati 500,000 to make the rhinos breed again and even those babies required hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep them alive. The climate wasn’t the climate those Rhinos are used to live in and the state spent a lot to replicate the climate for them. Buy do we want to replicate the climate for them specially when they are going extinct?
Chapter 12: The Madness Gene
The Neanderthals went extinct after the arrival of modern humans. Humans DNA shows that we still have a small percentage of the Neanderthals DNA. The author believes that we drove them to extinction.
Chapter 13: The Things with Feathers
-
Notes:
Chapter 1: The Sixth Extinction
Chapter 1 is about the Panamanian golden frogs which are almost extinct. Research later showed that a fungus “Chytrid Fungus” is the reason why frogs were dying. This kind of fungus though was not found naturally in Panama. Humans are how the fungus traveled from other places to Panama.
Chapter 2: The Mastodon’s Molars
In this chapter we get to know “George Cuvier” who was the first to say that natural catastrophes must have happened that caused mass extinction of many species. We also get introduced to the American Mastodon. Cuvier is the one refused to declare that the mastodon comes from the elephant family and gave it the name Mastodon.
Chapter 3: The Original Penguin
The story of the great auk, a bird which lived in Iceland. It didn’t fly. The settlers found the auk to be a great source of protein but they abused their power by hunting it to the point where it reached extinction.
Chapter 4: The Luck of the Ammonites
-
Chapter 5: Welcome to the Anthropocene
Increased levels of carbon dioxide caused the extinction of Graptolithina
“The Anthropocene is an informal geologic chronological term for the proposed epoch that began when human activities had a significant global impact on the Earth's ecosystems."
Chapter 6: The Sea Around Us
Carbon dioxide levels have been increasing since the industrial revolution. This carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the oceans to create carbonic acid which lowers the ph level of the ocean. When the ph level of the ocean drops, it causes a sharp decline in the life forms there.
Chapter 7: Dropping Acid
The story of coral reefs and the effect of the lowered ph level. Ocean acidification as learned by Kolbert will most likely cause the extinction of the coral reefs by the end of the century if the ph levels keeps dropping at this rate.
Chapter 8: The Forest and the Trees
-
Chapter 9: Islands on Dry Land
-
Chapter 10: The New Pangaea
-
Chapter 11: The Rhino Gets an Ultrasound
The Sumatran Rhino went extinct as forests were cut down in Sumatra. This chapter actually made kind of puzzled because the author went on to explain the massive efforts made to save the rhino, there were few left, three of them in the united states. it cost Cincinnati 500,000 to make the rhinos breed again and even those babies required hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep them alive. The climate wasn’t the climate those Rhinos are used to live in and the state spent a lot to replicate the climate for them. Buy do we want to replicate the climate for them specially when they are going extinct?
Chapter 12: The Madness Gene
The Neanderthals went extinct after the arrival of modern humans. Humans DNA shows that we still have a small percentage of the Neanderthals DNA. The author believes that we drove them to extinction.
Chapter 13: The Things with Feathers
-
klparmley's review against another edition
3.0
This is an excellent explanation of what climate change actually is. Easy to read and clear.
blaineduncan's review against another edition
3.0
The saddest tale of history will likely be that humans won’t just be an agent of mass extinction but will be, as Elizabeth Kolbert quotes in her book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, one of its victims.
http://www.theunilliterate.com/books/the-sixth-extinction-should-be-required-reading
http://www.theunilliterate.com/books/the-sixth-extinction-should-be-required-reading
lnt's review against another edition
4.0
Overall a good read, with some passages being way too detailed and boring for a non fiction. The idea for which the book is written, the next extinction, is walking us through some of the majors extinctions that we know of, some of them happening under our eyes. It's supposed to make you understand how impactful and dangerous humanity can be.
justineboon's review against another edition
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0