This book by Elizabeth Kolbert is a meticulously-written & sobering account of the mass extinction event that we, denizens of the Anthropocene, are living through & causing. Earth has had five mass extinction events (the end-Ordovician, late Devonian, end-Permian [this being the worst - also known as "the Great Dying", more than 90% of species were wiped out in this one], late Triassic & end-Cretaceous) caused by cataclysms that upset the planet's ecological stability almost to breaking point: this one, the sixth, is all down to human activity. From the disappearance of megafauna wherever & whenever humans historically spread to their biomes to the contemporary pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, warming the world & acidifying the oceans, not to mention the habitat loss brought about by human activity - there is no scientific doubt that we, the pinnacle of creation (to use a theological image), are killing everything else on Earth, bringing about an unprecedented state of affairs in which we may well see the life-support systems we rely on wither & die & take us with it.
This is a very readable book, but it's not an easy read. It's impossible to take onboard Kolbert's frontline fieldwork reports on declining biodiversity & not feel residual guilt at humanity's foremost part in this most geologically & biologically insane period. Highly recommended reading for those who still need a persuasive nudge toward acknowledgement of Anthropocenic evil - for evil it is. God must look down on the frogs, the corals, the rhinos, & weep: and if we do not weep with Him & radically adjust the manner in which we live upon this ever-increasingly uncrowded planet, we will be cosmic criminals of the highest order.
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