In The Sixth Extinction, she travels the world to see the evidence for the past extinction events, to witness the current extinction in action and to talk to experts in the field.

In the case of the current mass extinction, which has been named the ‘Holocene Extinction’, the cause is human activity.Įlizabeth Kolbert, a journalist for The New Yorker, describes the potential for a sixth mass extinction event as something exciting and fascinating – to witness an incredibly rare event – and horrifying in terms of what it might mean. As well as asteroid impacts, massive volcanic activity and changes to atmospheric chemical composition from various causes, have all been suspected. The causes of past mass extinctions are also difficult to determine. It has even been proposed (but not yet accepted) that the changes the planet is currently experiencing recommend the creation of a new geological epoch, presumptively dubbed the ‘Anthropocene’. Though quantifying it is difficult for a variety of reasons – for example, many species are going extinct before science can properly identify them – we are currently experiencing another decline large enough to qualify as a mass extinction event. We have all heard of the most recent one – the K-Pg Extinction which ended the era of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, most likely caused by an asteroid impact in what is now Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.įive instances over the space of some 450 or so million years makes them one of the rarest events on our planet, however, we may be currently experiencing a sixth. Five instances where the world experienced a widespread and rapid decline of biodiversity. In 1982, palaeontologists Jack Sepkoski and David Raup identified five mass extinction events in the Earth’s history. However, if you were hoping for book infused with scientific rigor, to be guided by a mentor of capable expertise, you may be disappointed. A well-written, fascinating and horrifying account, The Sixth Extinction won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2015. In The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert examines the environmental catastrophes the world is currently experiencing in the context of a mass extinction event.

The 6th extinction book