The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
            In, The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert writes about the possibilities of a sixth extinction that could be caused by humans. It is a graphic and powerful reflection about how human actions such as polluting the air and illegally dumping toxic waste has major consequences on our planet. Kolbert begins with a quick review on the first five extinctions and how we are beginning the sixth one. She brings up numerous issues throughout the novel about global warming, waste dumping, air pollution, and many other factors that affect our environment in a negative way. She believes that all of these problems stem from humans and that we must do something to prevent this from carrying on.
            Some of the main issues Kolbert mentions throughout the novel are: deforestation, toxic waste, air pollution, and ocean acidification. She conveys her claim well because these problems stem from human that damage the earth. Deforestation destroyed entire environments and we have hurt millions of animals by taking away their homes. Toxic waste, another prominent issue, has damaged the quality of our water and affected our ocean wildlife. This is especially concerning because humans should handle this waste with more respect and care towards wildlife. Air pollution, which was talked about numerous times throughout the novel, comes from our cars and airplanes releasing carbon dioxide into the air. Reading about air pollution in this novel made me think about the cars on the freeway that have smog spewing from their exhaust pipe. This is particularly disappointing because many of those cars can be fixed to have less carbon output, but the owners are just too selfish and ignorant to do anything about it. Finally, ocean acidification is another issue that not many people know about. This occurs when the carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in the water and raises the temperature of the ocean. Ocean acidification also lowers the pH of the ocean which is very harmful for marine life. The higher acidity of the ocean damages sensitive coral reefs which is home to many different kinds of marine life. For instance, the Great Barrier Reef is under grave danger because of the rising temperatures and acidity of the ocean. All these problems are very troubling and although they don’t have a direct effect on us yet, it is only a matter of time until we face the consequences of our actions.
After reading the book I had mixed feelings about it. Some parts of the book were interesting but others felt long to read and did not provoke much thought from me. One of my favorite chapters was chapter 10 which talked about the bats with white-nose syndrome. This particularly caught my attention because I thought it was amazing how humans never knew about this syndrome until they started researching the bats. The scientists also traced the cause of the syndrome back to Europe which was very perplexing. Kolbert also made the chapter somewhat graphic by writing explicitly about the dead bats inside the cave. This sparked an emotion within me as I imagined myself standing before hundreds of dead bats on the ground. It made me think about the true effect humans have on the world and made me feel somewhat guilty because this was done by human actions.  

            If I could describe this novel in one word it would be, “alarming”. As I was reading the book there were a lot of things that I did not know about; for example, the situation of different animals that are affected by our actions. Reading about the terrible things that could happen to our planet made me feel disappointed because there are ways that I can help the environment, but choose not to. It was also scary to think about extinction because it is so hard to imagine a world without life on earth, but if we do not change our actions this could become a reality. This novel definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone and provoked many different questions about our existence and the effect we have on our planet.

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