The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST

A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes

Over the last half a 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 The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino.

Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

JOEL SARTORE is a photographer, author, and 30-year contributor to National Geographic magazine, named 2018 National Geographic Explorer of the Year. Through his National Geographic Photo Ark project, he plans to photograph every species of animal under human care, an estimated 12,000. (As of Nov 2018, he has photographed nearly 9,000.) A three-part PBS/Nova special, Rare, featured his project in 2017. His Fundamentals of Photography is the best-selling offering of all The Great Courses, and he is a frequent guest on CBS Sunday Morning.

ELIZABETH KOLBERT (foreword) is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Her most recent book, The Sixth Extinction, received the Pulitzer Price for general nonfiction in 2015. She is also the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. A two-time National Magazine Award winner, Kolbert is a visiting fellow at the Center for Environmental Studies at Williams College.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780805092998
ISBN 10	0805092994
Title	The Sixth Extinction
Author	Elizabeth Kolbert
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Henry Holt & Company
Year published	2014-02-11
Number of pages	336
Prizes	Winner of Pulitzer Prize (Nonfiction) 2015, Winner of L.A. Times Book Prize (Science/Technology) 2014, Winner of ALA Notable Books (Nonfiction) 2015, Winner of Massachusetts Book Award (MassBook) (Nonfiction) 2015, Commended for National Book Critics Circle Award (Nonfiction) 2014, Commended for Helen Bernstein Book Award 2015, Commended for Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence (Nonfiction) 2015, Commended for Kirkus Prize (Nonfiction) 2014
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.