This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“No creature has ever altered life on the planet in this way
before, and yet other, comparable events have occurred. Very, very occasionally in the distant past,
the planet has undergone change so wrenching that the diversity of life has
plummeted. Five of these ancient events
were catastrophic enough that they’re put in their own category: the so-called
Big Five. In what seems like a fantastic
coincidence, but is probably no coincidence at all, the history of these events
is recovered just as people come to realize that they are causing another
one. When it is still too early to say
whether it will reach the proportions of the Big Five, it becomes known as the
Sixth Extinction.” – Elizabeth Kolbert, Prologue, Page 9
“Whatever the explanation, the
contrasting fate of the two groups raises a key point. Everything (and everyone) alive today is
descended from an organism that somehow survived the impact. But it does not follow from this that they
(or we) are any better adapted. In times
of extreme stress, the whole concept of fitness, at least in a Darwinian sense,
loses its meaning: how could a creature be adapted, either well or ill, for
conditions it has never before encountered in its entire evolutionary history?”
– Elizabeth Kolbert, Chapter IV: The Luck of the Ammonites, Page 84
“WHY is ocean acidification so dangerous? The question is tough to answer only because
the list of reasons is so long.
Depending on how tightly organisms are able to regulate their internal
chemistry, acidification may affect such basic processes as metabolism, enzyme
activity, and protein function. Because
it will change the makeup of microbial communities, it will alter the
availability of key nutrients, like iron and nitrogen. For similar reasons, it will change the
amount of light that passes through the water, and for somewhat different
reasons, it will alter the way sound propagates. (In general, acidification is expected to
make the seas noisier.) It seems likely
to promote the growth of toxic algae. It
will impact photosynthesis – many plant species are apt to benefit from elevated
CO2 levels – and it will alter the compounds formed by dissolved
metals, in some cases in ways that could be poisonous.” – Elizabeth Kolbert, Chapter
VI: The Sea Around Us, Pages 109-110
Is This An Overview?
Evolution enables biodiversity, but not all species can
compete. Sometimes species disappear, go
extinct. A mass extinction is when there
is a significant loss in biodiversity. Before
the rise of humans, the world has experienced mass extinctions. There have been five such extinctions
eras. Just as humans begin to discover
that extinctions are possible, humans discover that they are the cause of
another. The sixth extinction is caused
by mostly human activity.
Humans have terraformed the world beyond what many species
are capable of adapting to. Evolutionary
fitness becomes meaningless in an era that is experiencing a quickly changing
environment. Some species can benefit
within the changed land, air, and water, but often at the expense of many other
species. As humans have harmed the
ecosystem, humans are also capable of saving the ecosystem. Various groups have formed to protect the
ecosystem, but these protection efforts are limited for the humans might not
know how to properly take care of a species, and the species can become
dependent on human protection.
Caveats?
Each chapter is about an extinct or going extinct species,
but not necessarily because of human interaction or uniquely human intention. Which is in contrast to title of the book. There is not much information about the
causes of the general mass extinction. Various
details are provided that add to the length of the book, but do not provide
relevant scientific information.
