The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kolbert, Elizabeth, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass extinctions.

Extinction (Biology).

Environmental disasters.

Physical Description:

319 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

First Picador edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Picador, Henry Holt and Company, 2015.

Summary:

Over the last half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around the cataclysm is us. In this book the author tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. She provides a moving account of the disappearances of various species occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up to Lyell and Darwin, and through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy, compelling us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

Contents:

Author's note

Prologue

I: The sixth extinction

II: The mastodon's molars

III. The original penguin

IV. The luck of the ammonites

V: Welcome to the anthropocene

VI: The sea around us

VII: Dropping acid

VIII: The forest and the trees

IX: Islands on dry land

X: The new Pangaea

XI: The rhino gets an ultrasound

XII: The madness gene

XIII: The thing with feathers

Acknowledgments

Notes

Selected bibliography

Photo/Illustration credits

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-304) and index.

Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, 2015.

Other Edition:

Reproduction of: Kolbert, Elizabeth. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2014

ISBN:

9781250062185

1250062187

OCLC:

876349700