The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.
Kolbert, Elizabeth.
2014
QE721.2.E97 K65 2014 (Mapit)
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Title The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.
Author Kolbert, Elizabeth.
Edition First edition.
ISBN 9780805092998 hardcover
0805092994 hardcover
Published New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2014.
Language English
Description 319 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
Call Number QE721.2.E97 K65 2014
Dewey Decimal Classification 576.8/4
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.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-304) and index.
Awards Pulitzer Prize, 2015.
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Record Appears in On-Campus Resources > Books
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The sixth extinction
The mastodon's molars
The original penguin
The luck of the ammonites
Welcome to the Anthropocene
The sea around us
Dropping acid
The forest and the trees
Islands on dry land
The new Pangaea
The rhino gets an ultrasound
The madness gene
The thing with feathers.

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