Title The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.

Publication Info.	New York : Picador, Henry Holt and Company, 2015.
	©2014

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Location	Call No.	Status
Middletown, Russell Library - Adult Nonfiction	576.84 KOL	Check Shelf
University of Saint Joseph: Pope Pius XII Library - Standard Shelving Location	576.84 K81S	Check Shelf

Edition	First Picador edition.
Description	319 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
Bibliography	Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-304) and index.
Contents	Author's note -- Prologue -- I: The sixth extinction -- II: The mastodon's molars -- III. The original penguin -- IV. The luck of the ammonites -- V: Welcome to the anthropocene -- VI: The sea around us -- VII: Dropping acid -- VIII: The forest and the trees -- IX: Islands on dry land -- X: The new Pangaea -- XI: The rhino gets an ultrasound -- XII: The madness gene -- XIII: The thing with feathers -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Photo/Illustration credits -- Index.
Summary	Over the last half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around the cataclysm is us. In this book the author tells us why and how human beings have altered life on the planet in a way no species has before. She provides a moving account of the disappearances of various species occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up to Lyell and Darwin, and through the present day. 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.
Awards	Pulitzer Prize, 2015.
Subject	Mass extinctions.
	Extinction (Biology)
	Environmental disasters.
	Human ecology.
	Nature -- Effect of human beings on.
	SCIENCE -- Environmental Science.
	SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Evolution.
	Environmental disasters.
	Extinction (Biology)
	Mass extinctions.
	Environmental disasters. (OCoLC)fst01741651
	Extinction (Biology) (OCoLC)fst00918969
	Human ecology. (OCoLC)fst00962941
	Mass extinctions. (OCoLC)fst01749765
	Nature -- Effect of human beings on. (OCoLC)fst01034564
	Extinct animals.
	Environmental disasters.
Other Editions:	Reproduction of (manifestation): Kolbert, Elizabeth. Sixth extinction. New York : Henry Holt and Company, 2014 (DLC) 2013028683
ISBN	9781250062185 (pbk.)
	1250062187 (pbk.)
Standard No.	40024491794

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Title The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.

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