---
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title: "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History"
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# The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

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Review: A Sobering Yet Essential Read - "When the world changes faster than species can adapt, many fall out. This is the case whether the agent of change drops from the sky in a fiery streak or drives to work in a Honda. To argue that the current extinction event could be averted if people just cared more and were willing to make more sacrifices is not wrong, exactly, but it misses the point. It doesn't matter much whether people care or don't care. What matters is that people change the world." Thus is the premise and sad reality stated in Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction." Part travel log, part history of the world and part zoological introduction to some wondrous creatures, yet at all times a sobering look at what "one weedy species" (mankind) has done to our fair planet, Kolbert's book is a must read for anyone interested in knowing what the not too distant future holds. I saw Kolbert interviewed on Jon Stewart about a month ago and became intrigued by this book. After a couple of entertaining novels featuring shady characters and twisting plot lines I was ready for a different kind of reading experience. "The Sixth Extinction" was not as laborious a read as I feared. Kolbert keeps the writing brisk and the science light. And she takes us around the world as she visits places as diverse as the Coral Reefs off Australia, bat caves in New England and an island off the coast of Italy. Along the way we meet some splendid creatures, many of whom are already extinct or well on their way. Plus we learn the history of the first five mass extinctions, how they happened and just as importantly how scientists have been able to figure out how something that happened hundreds of millions of years ago took place. The part of the book that I found most surprising is that it's not just climate change and extreme hunting that has killed off so many species. It is the movement of man around the world (and the introduction of new species into a region where they never existed that this movement allows) that has threatened so many creatures. The book opens with the case of frogs in a South America who are dying off at an alarming rate due to a fungi that was introduced into the forests of Panama just a few years ago. The fungi is from Asia where the amphibians have evolved through the millennia to be immune from it. But in South America, the frogs never needed whatever mutation Asian frogs have and thus many species there (which are hundreds of millions of years old) have become extinct. Similar situations are happening to the bat population in the US and many other creatures. And that, as Kolbert points out is why all the "Save the Whales" movements in the world will not completely stop this sixth extinction. Kolbert also gracefully spells out the irony of man, how so many of our actions lead to these latest extinctions - yet how so many work so diligently to avoid them. (The scientist giving a handjob to a crow to extract semen being perhaps the clearest example of this "diligent" work). Ultimately the book cannot answer the question that surely every reader has: will we (mankind) alter the world to such a degree that even we become extinct? Will we create an environment that no longer supports us? Or will we, as history's greatest innovators, continue to find a way to save ourselves (even if as the book says that means establishing communities in space should earth someday become unlivable). Surely this situation will not happen in our lifetime, and probably not in our children's lifetimes or their children's lifetimes. Thousands of years are immense when measured by man. In earth time, they are but a blink of an eye. If you want an interesting book, a readable story with some amazing insights, I'd highly recommend "The Sixth Extinction." Meanwhile I'm going to bury my head back in the sand and return to novels with shady characters. Even when the endings are depressing they aren't this depressing.
Review: Eye opening and sad - Elizabeth Kolbert somewhat goes on an adventure while researching the topics in this book. This made The Sixth Extinction exciting and full of knowledge and history. In the beginning, Kolbert goes into great detail about “The Big Five” mass extinctions in Earth’s recorded history and the impacts/significance of each. Kolbert also explains the history of the concept of extinction through a human perspective. After explaining how extinction was significant, she insinuates that humans have created a new geologic epoch, referred to as the Anthropocene. In this new epoch, Kolbert notes that humans have spread to every corner of the Earth, have become the most invasive species on Earth and are the only creatures on Earth capable of changing the composition of the atmosphere. This changing of the atmosphere has in turn affected climate and has changed the chemistry of the oceans in the process. I don’t think Kolbert’s goal was to necessarily convince people that climate change was causing The Sixth Extinction, but rather explaining the significant effects that humans can have on the environment, which is leading to massive die offs of important species. That being said, climate change is obviously exacerbating the process of extinctions globally. Overall, Kolbert does an excellent job of getting her hands dirty, traveling all of the world to speak with scientists that are researching rapid extinctions, picking up dead bats and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. The book is very informative, easy to understand, and eye opening.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #204,353 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2 in Endangered Species (Books) #7 in Natural History (Books) #10 in Ecology (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (10,475) |
| Dimensions  | 5.45 x 1 x 8.2 inches |
| Edition  | International Edition |
| ISBN-10  | 1250062187 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1250062185 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 336 pages |
| Publication date  | January 6, 2015 |
| Publisher  | Picador |

## Images

![The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51NHlfHKU6L.jpg)
![The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51O3TymEvdL.jpg)
![The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Image 3](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/810hbl-acgL.jpg)
![The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History - Image 4](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811HumtGpTL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Sobering Yet Essential Read
*by M***R on March 12, 2014*

"When the world changes faster than species can adapt, many fall out. This is the case whether the agent of change drops from the sky in a fiery streak or drives to work in a Honda. To argue that the current extinction event could be averted if people just cared more and were willing to make more sacrifices is not wrong, exactly, but it misses the point. It doesn't matter much whether people care or don't care. What matters is that people change the world." Thus is the premise and sad reality stated in Elizabeth Kolbert's "The Sixth Extinction." Part travel log, part history of the world and part zoological introduction to some wondrous creatures, yet at all times a sobering look at what "one weedy species" (mankind) has done to our fair planet, Kolbert's book is a must read for anyone interested in knowing what the not too distant future holds. I saw Kolbert interviewed on Jon Stewart about a month ago and became intrigued by this book. After a couple of entertaining novels featuring shady characters and twisting plot lines I was ready for a different kind of reading experience. "The Sixth Extinction" was not as laborious a read as I feared. Kolbert keeps the writing brisk and the science light. And she takes us around the world as she visits places as diverse as the Coral Reefs off Australia, bat caves in New England and an island off the coast of Italy. Along the way we meet some splendid creatures, many of whom are already extinct or well on their way. Plus we learn the history of the first five mass extinctions, how they happened and just as importantly how scientists have been able to figure out how something that happened hundreds of millions of years ago took place. The part of the book that I found most surprising is that it's not just climate change and extreme hunting that has killed off so many species. It is the movement of man around the world (and the introduction of new species into a region where they never existed that this movement allows) that has threatened so many creatures. The book opens with the case of frogs in a South America who are dying off at an alarming rate due to a fungi that was introduced into the forests of Panama just a few years ago. The fungi is from Asia where the amphibians have evolved through the millennia to be immune from it. But in South America, the frogs never needed whatever mutation Asian frogs have and thus many species there (which are hundreds of millions of years old) have become extinct. Similar situations are happening to the bat population in the US and many other creatures. And that, as Kolbert points out is why all the "Save the Whales" movements in the world will not completely stop this sixth extinction. Kolbert also gracefully spells out the irony of man, how so many of our actions lead to these latest extinctions - yet how so many work so diligently to avoid them. (The scientist giving a handjob to a crow to extract semen being perhaps the clearest example of this "diligent" work). Ultimately the book cannot answer the question that surely every reader has: will we (mankind) alter the world to such a degree that even we become extinct? Will we create an environment that no longer supports us? Or will we, as history's greatest innovators, continue to find a way to save ourselves (even if as the book says that means establishing communities in space should earth someday become unlivable). Surely this situation will not happen in our lifetime, and probably not in our children's lifetimes or their children's lifetimes. Thousands of years are immense when measured by man. In earth time, they are but a blink of an eye. If you want an interesting book, a readable story with some amazing insights, I'd highly recommend "The Sixth Extinction." Meanwhile I'm going to bury my head back in the sand and return to novels with shady characters. Even when the endings are depressing they aren't this depressing.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Eye opening and sad
*by N***S on November 6, 2016*

Elizabeth Kolbert somewhat goes on an adventure while researching the topics in this book. This made The Sixth Extinction exciting and full of knowledge and history. In the beginning, Kolbert goes into great detail about “The Big Five” mass extinctions in Earth’s recorded history and the impacts/significance of each. Kolbert also explains the history of the concept of extinction through a human perspective. After explaining how extinction was significant, she insinuates that humans have created a new geologic epoch, referred to as the Anthropocene. In this new epoch, Kolbert notes that humans have spread to every corner of the Earth, have become the most invasive species on Earth and are the only creatures on Earth capable of changing the composition of the atmosphere. This changing of the atmosphere has in turn affected climate and has changed the chemistry of the oceans in the process. I don’t think Kolbert’s goal was to necessarily convince people that climate change was causing The Sixth Extinction, but rather explaining the significant effects that humans can have on the environment, which is leading to massive die offs of important species. That being said, climate change is obviously exacerbating the process of extinctions globally. Overall, Kolbert does an excellent job of getting her hands dirty, traveling all of the world to speak with scientists that are researching rapid extinctions, picking up dead bats and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. The book is very informative, easy to understand, and eye opening.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Feast of Potent Ideas
*by R***) on June 21, 2015*

The Sixth Extinction I didn’t rush to read Elizabeth Kolbert’s book, The Sixth Extinction, because I imagined it would be a gloomy expose on the unfortunate consequences of way too much half-baked cleverness — and it was. But it’s also a fascinating story about the long saga of life on Earth, and the unclever antics of the latest primate species. It’s an outstanding book. We have soared away into a fantasy world, where godlike humans spend their lives creating brilliant miracles. But when observed in a 450 million year timeframe, from this moment when a new mass extinction is gathering momentum, the wonders of progress and technological innovation lose their shine. Kolbert rips off our virtual reality headsets, and serves us powerful medicine, a feast of provocative news. Today, the frog people are not feeling lucky. They have lived on this sweet planet for 400 million years, but many are now dying, because of a fungus called Bd. This fungus can live happily in the forest on its own, without an amphibian host, so endangered frogs rescued by scientists cannot be returned to the wild. The crisis began when humans transported frogs that carried the fungus, but were immune to it. There was money to be made in the frog business, and so the fungus has spread around the globe. This is similar to the chestnut blight of a century ago. Entrepreneurs profitably imported chestnut seedlings from Asia. The Asian species was immune to the fungus it carried. American chestnut trees were not immune, and four billion died, almost all of them. The fungus persists, so replanting is pointless. North American bats are dying by the millions from white-nose, caused by fungus that is common in Europe, where bats are immune to it. It was likely carried across the Atlantic by a tourist who dropped some spores in Howe Caverns, in New York. By 2013, the die-off had spread to 22 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces. Welcome to New Pangaea! Once upon a time, long before we were born, all seven continents were joined together in a single continent, Pangaea. Over time, it broke apart, and ecosystems on each continent evolved in a unique way. In recent centuries, highly mobile humans have moved countless organisms from one ecosystem to another, both deliberately and unintentionally. The seven continents no longer enjoy the long-term stability provided by isolation. On another front, many colonies of humans have become obsessed with burning sequestered carbon on an enormous scale. This is overloading the atmosphere with carbon, which the oceans absorb and convert to carbonic acid. Carbonic acid is a huge threat to marine life, except for lucky critters, like jellyfish. The world’s coral reefs are dying. Tropical rainforests are treasure chests of biological diversity. Tropical oceans generally are not, because of low levels of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Coral reefs are the shining exception. They provide habitat for thriving ecosystems, home to more than 500,000 species. This reminded me of beaver ponds, which are also sanctuaries of abundant life. Coral polyps and beavers are excellent examples of reciprocity. They create relationships that are mutually beneficial for many species. Reciprocity is a vital idea that most human cultures have forgotten. Our dominant culture has no respect for the wellbeing of ecosystems. It has a tradition of displacing or exterminating the indigenous species on the land, and replacing them with unsustainable manmade systems. Evolution is fascinating. Rabbits and mice have numerous offspring, because they are vulnerable to predators. Other species have deflected the predator challenge by evolving to great size, like mammoths, hippos, and rhinos. Big critters have long lifespans and low birth rates. This made them highly vulnerable when Homo sapiens moved into the neighborhood. Kolbert imagines that the megafauna extinctions were not the result of a reckless orgy of overhunting. It probably took centuries. Hunters had no way of knowing how much the mammoth population had gradually dwindled over the generations. Because they reproduced so slowly, they could have been driven to extinction by nothing more than modest levels of hunting. An elephant does not reach sexual maturity until its teens, and each pregnancy takes 22 months. There are never twins. Deer are still with us, because they reproduce faster. Sadly, Neanderthals are no longer with us. They lived in Europe for at least 100,000 years, and during that time, their tool collection barely changed. They probably never used projectiles. They have acquired a reputation for being notorious dimwits, because they lived in a stable manner for a very long time, and didn’t rubbish the ecosystem. Homo sapiens moved into Europe 40,000 years ago. By 30,000 years ago, the Neanderthals were gone. The DNA of modern folks, except Africans, contains up to four percent Neanderthal genes. Homo sapiens has lived in a far more intense manner. In the last 10,000 years, we’ve turned the planet inside out. Kolbert wonders if there was a slight shift in our DNA that made us so unstable — a “madness gene.” I wonder if we’re simply the victims of cultural evolution that hurled us down a terrible path. If we had been raised in Neanderthal clans, would we be stable, sane, and happy? Kolbert laments, “The Neanderthals lived in Europe for more than a hundred thousand years and during that period they had no more impact on their surroundings than any other large vertebrate. There is every reason to believe that if humans had not arrived on the scene, the Neanderthals would be there still, along with the wild horses and wooly rhinos.” Cultures have an amazing ability to put chains on our mental powers. Kolbert describes how scientists (and all humans) typically struggle with disruptive information, concepts that bounce off our sacred myths. Bizarre new ideas, like evolution, extinction, or climate change, are reflexively dismissed as nonsense. As evidence of reality accumulates, increasing levels of absurd rationalizations must be invented. Eventually, someone actually acknowledges reality, and a paradigm shift is born. For most of my life, human extinction has not been on my radar. By the end of Kolbert’s book, readers understand that our extinction is more than a remote, theoretical possibility. What is absolutely certain is that we are pounding the planet to pieces. Everything is connected, and when one type of tree goes extinct, so do the insects that depend on it, as well as the birds that depend on the insects. When the coral polyps die, the coral reef ecosystem disintegrates. The sixth mass extinction is clearly the result of human activities. The driving forces include the things we consider to be our great achievements — agriculture, civilization, industry, transportation systems. This is highly disruptive information, and everyone is working like crazy to rationalize our nightmares out of existence. Luckily, a number of people, like Kolbert, are beginning to acknowledge reality. Will there be a paradigm shift? Will we walk away from our great achievements, and spend the next 100,000 years living in balance with the planet?

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