The Sixth Extinction Chapter Summary

I think the title “The Sixth Extinction” is appropriate because 5 mass extinctions (the Big Five) have already occurred, and we are on the brink of a 6th one. I also believe the subtitle “An Unnatural History” is fitting due to the not-so natural ways that animals become extinct. Whether it be because of BP fungus, asteroids, carbon dioxide-emitting sea vents, deforestation, and other various human activity. The only other title suggestion I have would be “The Anthropocene Extinction.”

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.

There are thirteen chapters in book The Sixth Extinction, and each one represents something different as the chapters are leading to the end where she points out that there could be hope. The first chapter in the book is called the Sixth Extinction and this chapter mainly talks about frogs and that is because they have been around longer than any other species some say. Frogs have been around for around 400 million years at least that is when they started crawling out of

Panamanian golden frogs, the American mastodon, Neanderthals, coral reefs, and auks -- what do they have in common? They are all mentioned in Elizabeth Kolbert’s award-winning book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. In The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert relates the findings of her investigations into several extinctions recently reported, connecting them to several human activities such as habitat fragmentation and introducing nonnative and invasive species, while also giving the readers various history lessons. She tells about her adventures in Panama saving endangered frogs, visiting the island of the last two great auks known to man in Iceland, and even examining the fossilized teeth of an American mastodon in the French National Museum of Natural History.

<b>Introduction</b><br>Think of a world which existed 290 million years ago. As you look out over the terane in front of you, you think that you are on an alien planet. You see volcanoes spewing ash and lava. Beside them is the ocean which is swarming with many different species of echinoderms, bryozoans and brachiopods. As you look down onto the sea floor you are amazed at the countless number of starfish and urchins. Some animals leave you can't even describe and you have no idea even what phylum they belong to. This is a world at its height in diversity of oceanic species. Millions of wonderous species existed at this time in the ocean and most of them will never appear again in earth's history. In the geologic time scale, a million

The scientific community applauds Elizabeth Kolbert for her recently published The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, as it exceeds scientific and literary standards. Elizabeth Kolbert, born in 1961, is a American journalist and author and has won more than ten awards since 2005. In fact, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History recently won her the Pulitzer prize for general nonfiction writing. For a scientific overview of her book, it discusses quite exactly what the title states. There have been five mass extinctions throughout the history of this earth, and the sixth is currently happening and being driven by humans. Kolbert discusses several different species that have become extinct or are on the brink of extinction. She includes history of mankind discovering the concept of extinction as they gradually began to wrap their brains around the idea in the early eighteen hundreds. Lastly, Kolbert masterfully describes her own experiences face to face. She

There have been many scientific studies conducted to prove and disprove the many theories. However, scientific evidence indicates that both gradual climate changes and sudden catastrophic events have caused past extinctions. The question now is if the sixth extinction will be the result of a sudden catastrophe or a more gradual event caused by humans. The effects that humans are having on the earth is often the subject of debate among scientists and ecologists. Data exists that proves human innovation and expansion has contributed to decreased air and water quality as well as global

Without humans moving these frogs and frog parts around the globe, this fungus never would have been able to cross oceans or mountains or desserts. It would have been at worst a localized phenomenon and at best nothing would have happened. Even inadvertently, we are causing the Sixth

In this day and age, many humans learn about dinosaurs through scholarly journals, academic settings, or by viewing skeletal remains or reproductions by visiting museums. We know dinosaurs existed by the artifacts scientists uncovered over the years. However, varying conclusions from data and research compiled from experts still differ in their determinations as to the demise of these noble creatures. In the article, of Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous–Tertiary Extinction, researchers combine efforts to prove an asteroid spanning six miles collided with earth and destroyed the dinosaur population (Alvarez et al. 1980). Many theories exist regarding the existence and extinction of the dinosaur species. However, this essay will

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that we exhale in our daily lives. Plants use carbon dioxide to create oxygen that all mammals use. However, carbon dioxide can also change the chemistry of the ocean, this is often referred to as ocean acidification. The excess carbon dissolves into oxygen in the water, producing a chemical called carbonic acid. This acid causes the ocean to become more acidic. In the eighteenth century, the pH was 8.07 which was slightly basic. Currently, the pH is around 8.01 this is about a twenty-five percent increase in acidity. (National geographic) While this slight change may not seem outrageous, it is causing multiple marine life struggles. The acid melts the shells of pteropods causing a low supply of food that would support larger fish.

Ever since the history of Earth has been studied using fossil records, extinctions have always been the object of fascination and interest, particularly the mass extinctions that occurred throughout Earth's history. A mass extinction can be caused by disruptive global environmental changes, where large numbers of species have become extinct (Urry et al. 2008). There have been five major extinctions documented based on fossil records over the past 500 million years, but the Cretaceous (KT boundary extinction – a name that meant it began the Tertiary era) extinction caught a lot of

The main factors in this climate change are observed to be the increase in temperatures and the resulting acidification of the oceans. The previously mentioned changes and others in the report are readily observable, such as the uptake of anthropogenic carbon since 1750 that has led to the ocean becoming more acidic, with an average decrease in pH of 0.1 units and in some instances blatantly obvious, even to the average layperson. It is difficult to conclude what the rate of change in the future will be and the effects of observed ocean acidification on the marine biosphere.

Since before the industrial evolutions humans have been pumping green house gasses—carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons— into the atmosphere however, it wasn’t until recently that the amounts being produced are shoving the Earth into a sixth extinction. While the causes of this upcoming extinction are constantly debated on it has earned itself the name Holocene extinction. This name is derived from the theory that humans are the main contributors to this extinction. To investigate the cause Elizabeth Kolbert, and American journalist and professor at Williams College, took the world on a wild and saddening journey on the human contribution to this looming extinction in her novel, The Sixth Extinction; An Unnatural History. Not only does Kolbert’s book explain how humans have contributed to global warming and its effects on life on land but also ocean acidification and how life under the sea has changed over the years.

Ocean acidification is the process of the ocean becoming more acidic, or dropping on the pH scale. Another name for this process is ocean de-basification because seawater is actually a basic substance, so the “acidification” is seawater dropping to a more neutral pH. Despite what you call it, it is agreed that this activity results in negative consequences for both our environment as well as the creatures in it. This paper will be looking at the causes of ocean acidification, the effects of it, and what society can do in an attempt to stop it.

Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion is increasing dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and reducing pH in the global surface ocean (Edmunds et al. 2016). Recent estimates suggest that one-quarter of carbon dioxide emissions originating from human fossil-fuel combustion is absorbed by the world’s oceans (Le Quéré, et al. 2015), causing a shift in the seawater carbonate chemistry. As a result, oceans have seen large increases in bicarbonate ions and decreases in concentrations of calcium carbonate ions and pH of the seawater; in a process known as ocean acidification. Since preindustrial times, atmospheric carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans has lowered the pH of the seawater by 0.1 units, which equates to approximately a 30% increase in acidity. In addition, carbonate ion concentrations have decreased by 11%-15% in the tropics and southern oceans (Orr et al. 2005). According to the IPCC, under a “business as usual” approach to climate change, carbon dioxide absorbed by the oceans will cause a pH decrease of 0.77 units by 2030 (Caldeira and Wickett 2003). This increase in acidity will cause decreases in carbonate ion concentration and lead to a reduction in the saturation states of aragonite, calcite and high magnesium calcite, which may lead to a reduction in calcification in marine organisms (Feely et al. 2004; Gattuso et al. 1999; Langdon and Atkinson 2005; Anthony et al. 2008). With a doubling of atmospheric pCO2 from