Ex dente leonem reviewed Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Review of 'Sixth Extinction' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
A sobering assessment of the mass extinction event now underway in the Anthropocene, and the systems collapse that is sure to occur as a result of this devastating loss of biodiversity. Ironically, this assessment of the current rate of extinction is likely to already be outdated even though it was published only a few years ago. However, while presenting a solid overall summary, the author does not seem committed to pointing out exactly why this is occurring beyond the already-established mechanism of anthropogenic global warming, and several passages in the book, including 1) the author's raving about the delicacy of kangaroo meat and 2) casually mentioning a pig, an animal at least as intelligent as a dog, being brought to a research station and placed in a tiny cage for the sole purpose of being barbecued, shows that the author herself does not seem to have fully internalized the lessons …
A sobering assessment of the mass extinction event now underway in the Anthropocene, and the systems collapse that is sure to occur as a result of this devastating loss of biodiversity. Ironically, this assessment of the current rate of extinction is likely to already be outdated even though it was published only a few years ago. However, while presenting a solid overall summary, the author does not seem committed to pointing out exactly why this is occurring beyond the already-established mechanism of anthropogenic global warming, and several passages in the book, including 1) the author's raving about the delicacy of kangaroo meat and 2) casually mentioning a pig, an animal at least as intelligent as a dog, being brought to a research station and placed in a tiny cage for the sole purpose of being barbecued, shows that the author herself does not seem to have fully internalized the lessons she would have us learn from 1) the tragic exploitation of the great auk (an example she herself gives earlier in the book), or 2) why humans should cease viewing nonhuman animals as resources that exist simply for our use. One gets the impression that the author views our effect on the planet as simply a result of human nature and not of human systems that we have the ability to consciously change, though as she points out with the prehistoric extinctions of megafauna within generations of humans' arrival in a region, human nature may well be the cause.
