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The cover of The Sixth Extinction

The Sixth Extinction

Elizabeth Kolbert, 2014

Follow extinction from fossils to frogs, reefs, bats, and vanished human relatives, and see how one unusually inventive species is reshaping the future of life.

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9 parts, about 21 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that humans are driving an extinction event still in progress, set against the five great die offs recorded in rock
  • Helps you see ocean acidification, warming, fragmentation and invasive species as linked forces reshaping life on Earth
  • Told through field reporting with scientists, from vanishing frogs to acidifying seas, and the history of how extinction was discovered

Who it is for

  • Readers who want the science behind biodiversity loss
  • Nature lovers curious what fieldwork on extinction looks like
  • Students of ecology, geology or environmental policy

What the summary covers

  1. An Extinction Event in Progress2 min
  2. How Extinction Became Thinkable3 min
  3. When the Rules Change3 min
  4. Carbon Changes the Sea2 min
  5. No Refuge from Climate and Fragmentation3 min
  6. The New Pangaea2 min
  7. The Animal That Changes the Rules2 min
  8. The Traits Behind the Crisis2 min
  9. What We Leave Open2 min

Recommended by

  • Barack Obama44th President of the United States
    [The Sixth Extinction] is a wonderful book, and it makes very clear that big, abrupt changes can happen; they're not outside the realm of possibility. They have happened before, they can happen again.
  • Al GoreFormer US Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize co winner
    Powerful . . . An invaluable contribution to our understanding.
  • Bill GatesMicrosoft cofounder and chair of the Gates Foundation
    Natural scientists posit that there have been five extinction events in the Earth's history (think of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs), and Kolbert makes a compelling case that human activity is leading to the sixth.
  • David GrannStaff writer at The New Yorker and author of The Lost City of Z
    An epic, riveting story of our species that reads like a scientific thriller--only more terrifying because it is real.
  • Bill McKibbenAuthor and environmentalist, founder of Third Act
    With her usual lucid and lovely prose, Elizabeth Kolbert lays out the sad and gripping facts of our moment on earth: that we've become a geological force, driving vast swaths of creation over the brink.

About the author

  • Elizabeth KolbertStaff writer at The New Yorker since 1999 and author
    • Born on 6 July 1961.
    • Studied literature at Yale University, then held a Fulbright Scholarship at the University of Hamburg in 1983.
    • Began working for The New York Times as a stringer in Germany in 1983.
    • Before joining The New Yorker she worked at The New York Times, where she wrote the Metro Matters column and was the paper's Albany bureau chief.
    • Her three part New Yorker series on global warming, The Climate of Man, won the 2006 National Magazine Award for Public Interest.
    • Won the 2010 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism.
    • Received the Blake Dodd Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017.
    • Lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.

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