The Issue Of Global Extinction In The Sixth Extinction By Elizabeth Kolbert
The Sixth Extinction is a book written by Elizabeth Kolbert, primarily emphasizes that our planet has suffered from five significant extinctions and is in the middle of a sixth one. As per the author, we humans are responsible for this current extinction. She does not directly accuse that humankind caused this event. However, it is evident when you read this book. Kolbert emphasizes this viewpoint strongly in each section by providing us evidence that we are responsible for certain species that are already extinct or going extinct. She also firmly believes that humans have caused some severe damage to this planet over time, either directly or indirectly. To me, this all seemed pretty disheartening and disturbing.
This particular chapter, Six: “The Sea Among Us,” directly impacted me with recent global events. In this chapter, the author explains how the oceans are absorbing rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air. It results in more carbonic acid in the sea. It will reduce the pH levels in the oceans and will impact marine life. This rapid increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is primarily due to us humans emitting more and more fossil fuels with different resources. Kolbert tells us about Castello Aragonese in this chapter, a small island which is located in the Gulf of Naples. She visited the island along with marine biologists and researched that excess carbon dioxide directly impacted the declination of marine life. This chapter serves as a warning sign to us as to what will happen if we continue to produce and emit the number of fossil fuels we currently do today. I want to analyze the primary motive of the author for this chapter. I'm using the pentad approach for this analysis. The five elements that I will be using are the act, agency, purpose, scene, and agent. This chapter mainly investigated the primary reason for lower pH levels in the oceans and how that negatively impacted marine life. The loss of marine life is the act. The agency is the carbonic acid in the sea. The purpose is retaining the resources that burnt fossil fuels. The scene is at Castello Aragonese. The agent is obviously us humans. I find that the agent is in fact dominant compared to the rest of the components. Because humans are responsible for burning fossil fuels, which results in increased carbon dioxide, it was the primary reason for carbonic acid in the ocean, and that resulted in the reduction of pH and loss of marine life. That is what the author explained as well.
The theme of this book is that humans are the culprit when it comes to damage to our planet. We humans as a species, in general, engage in various activities that will benefit our lifestyles. We do not consider if these actions will have any negative impacts in the near or long term. We produce about 9 million tons of carbon dioxide each year from numerous activities. However, we are the only ones responsible for deforestation and burning fossil fuels that are the primary reasons for an increase in carbon dioxide. Though the intentions were never meant to cause damage, we are leaving impacts on the course of this planet that cannot be altered. Humans are impacting this planet, the environment, and the ecosystem. This impact on an object or a system due to human activity is referred to as the anthropogenic impact. These include global warming, biodiversity loss, ecological collapse, ocean acidification, environmental degradation, and many more. Altering the environment to meet the needs of humans is causing severe impacts. Overpopulation is one of the primary root causes for this impact, and it continues. Overconsumption, pollution, overexploitation, and deforestation are primarily due to population rise. Global warming and biodiversity loss have direct risk on human life as well. Human actions that directly influence global warming by burning fossil fuels include several of these like the use of electricity, cars, planes, space heating, manufacturing, or the destruction of forests. Amazon rainforests are the lungs of this planet earth. They are the sink of carbon dioxide of this planet. They are responsible for generating almost 20% of oxygen for this planet. It is the largest tropical forest in the world that spreads to nearly 2.124 million square meters. This region is home to several species that includes about several million insects, thousands of plants, animals, birds, reptiles, etc. You can find one in every bird's species and one in every five species of fish species in the base of Amazon. This huge base is burning in 2019.
The burning Amazon fires of 2019 had an impact to this planet, several species and to us humans. Humans cause these forest fires. As of August 2019, there were almost 80000 fires reported in the Amazon base. Forest fires can usually occur in the dry season. However, humans use several techniques to clear the forest to make way for farming, mining, etc. leading to deforestation. The forest fires are producing more carbon dioxide and reducing oxygen. It is polluting the environment. There are around 385 million people immediately affected by these fires who live nearby. Several respiratory diseases can occur. Depletion of oxygen can result in depression and other mental disorders as well. These fires directly impact global warming and reduction in rainfall as well. These forest fires increased carbon dioxide amount in the air. As the author explained, this will increase the carbonic acid in the ocean that will reduce the pH and affect marine life. Kolbert is warning us in chapter six about this exact thing. Today we are doing the one thing that could lead us to this sixth extinction. It is one of the most significant impacts I realized after reading this book. We humans, without understanding the implications trigger this deforestation. The author has warned us.
The author’s motive is to educate her readers about extinction and our impact and contribution. Throughout this entire book, she talks about her many expeditions, research about various topics that led to the disappearance of several species. I specifically analyzed chapter 6 earlier and compared to the recent Amazon Fires. The author clearly explains us with evidence that marine life destruction was primarily due to the carbonic acid and how we humans were the agents. She is warning us about the significant impact we must face in the future if we continue in this path. The author cares about our well-being, the planet, and its species. Otherwise, she would not go through all these efforts in the quest of the sixth extinction. She explains the readers by providing specific examples in each chapter that how our actions have a direct impact on this planet and its future. She hopes that we change our ways or at least be aware that our activities do affect. Before reading this book, I was aware of the extinction, the ice age, global warming, deforestation, etc. as I've watched several documentaries. However, I wasn't aware of the sixth extinction and our role as humans. I was chilled and alarmed while I was reading. Especially chapter six was an awakening moment. The author warns us about marine life impact and carbon dioxide. Here we are facing the Amazon fires in 2019. While I salute the author's futuristic eyesight, I'm ashamed of our actions. Deforestation is the one thing she is warning us about, and we are doing that today. We are burning the one biggest forest that, can reduce the footprint of carbon dioxide.
After reading this book, I have a positive attitude towards our ecosystem. Every animal, plant, and species has pretty much the same right to live like us humans. We cannot be doing the same thing to our environments so that we can survive without considering its impact on this planet. The author has brought us to the limelight that we are leading to the sixth extinction. We hear about endangered species and care to protect them. As the next step, we need to the right thing and prevent those actions that led them to be endangered in the very first place. Our attitude of taking things for granted needs to change. We need to respect nature and its gifts to us. Our tone or attitude towards the environment that everything is okay in my life today needs to be changed. What actions we do today will definitely affect future generations. That future is not that far away if we do not change quickly. Kolbert ends this book by saying how humans can help reverse their adverse impacts on this planet. She also provides excellent examples of how this is currently happening. I feel that this book will create a positive attitude in the reader's mind about the environment. It will create awareness. The intention of the examples is not to finger point the victim, instead educate is as what we can do better. Everyone is aware of global warming, droughts, scarcity of rainfall, deforestation, fossil fuels, overpopulation, etc. However, we do not take any corrective actions. When individuals raise their concern and do the right thing, it will have a positive impact. I will recommend this book to my classmate for the above reasons. As I read, the earth is large enough for all of us to share; but maybe mankind's heart is not big enough to care.
References
- AMAZON. (n.d.). Retrieved August 25, 2019, from https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/amazon
- Kolbert, E. (2014). The Sixth Extinction An Unnatural History. New York, NY: Picador.
- Yeung, J. (2019, August 23). Blame humans for starting the Amazon fires, environmentalists say. (CNN)The Amazon is burning. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/22/americas/amazon-fires-humans-intl-hnk-trnd/index.html
