The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The question I asked myself after I read this book is: why didn’t I read it sooner?

Normally I read natural history by scientists I follow, like E.O. Wilson and Richard Dawkins. Ms. Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker; she is not a scientist. Her writing style is easily readable for the non-scientist. I found myself nodding frequently and thinking “of course.” I hold three science degrees, but I suspect the regular person would likely be unaware of the ecology she presents.

Ms. Kolbert did extensive research, traveling around the globe, reporting on the past five extinctions and the current one, the Sixth Extinction. She concentrates on a handful of species, including bats and highlights white-nose syndrome (something I know a bit about). Her observations are heart-breaking, her words haunting: “Though it might be nice to imagine there was once a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it’s not clear that he ever really did.”

More than anything this book makes you rethink what it really means to be human. It isn’t that many people don’t care about biodiversity and its loss. I have worked with hundreds of people in my life who have gone to extraordinary lengths to save species (particularly in New Zealand). Conservation is an essential part of my life and something I’ve devoted much time and money toward; it’s the reason I wrote “The Skye Van Bloem Trilogy.” If people care, they’ll do something, right?

Ms. Kolbert presents the idea that simply being human means we alter our surroundings in a way that damages the natural world. We simply can’t help it. She ends by saying, "It doesn’t much matter whether people care or don’t care. What matters is that people change the world.”

But we can make better choices, all of us.



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