The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
Elizabeth Kolbert
Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining, and deeply informed, The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. Interweaving research in half a dozen disciplines, descriptions of the fascinating species that have already been lost, and the history of extinction as a concept, Kolbert provides a moving and comprehensive account of the disappearances occurring before our very eyes. She shows that 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.
- Author
- Elizabeth Kolbert
- Edition published
- February 11, 2014
- Publication year
- 2014
- Goodreads rating
- 4.15/5 from 81,788 ratings and 8,158 reviews
- Purchased
- December 15, 2016 · kindle
- Publisher
- Henry Holt and Co. (Georg von Holtzbrinck)
- Edition
- Kindle Edition · 336 pages
- Language
- English
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Science, History, Environment, Nature, Biology, Audiobook, Climate Change, Animals, Ecology
- Awards
- Pulitzer Prize · General Nonfiction · winner · 2015; Helen Bernstein Book Award · Excellence in Journalism · nominee · 2015; Los Angeles Times Book Prize · Science and Technology · winner · 2014; National Book Critics Circle Award · General Nonfiction · nominee · 2014; PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award · Shortlist · nominee · 2015; Andrew Carnegie Medal · Nonfiction (Shortlist) · nominee · 2015; Kirkus Prize · Nonfiction (Finalist) · nominee · 2014; Goodreads Choice Award · Nonfiction · nominee · 2014; Goodreads Choice Award · Readers' Favorite Nonfiction · nominee · 2014
- ISBN
- 9780805092998
- Added
- December 15, 2016
- Times read
- 1
- Owned copies
- 1
- Goodreads
- Book record