[12] The Sixth Extinction: Elizabeth Kolbert - Review

The Sixth Extinction is half journalism and half history. The book seeks to provide a context for our modern extinction by describing what scientists have found out about the past and comparing it to the rates of extinction we see in plants and animals today.

The author relates her experience like an explanation of vacations she went on. And much as cycling through someone's slideshow, you might ask yourself when she's gong to get to the point. Chapters are broken up into explorations of a specific animal that has gone or is going extinct. Whether the lengths that are gone to keep it alive or methodical over-hunting is described, you'll find yourself confronted with too many details.

I'm a little disappointed in that I feel the author leaves you with too much room to consider mass extinction par for the course. Surely we know animals, including ourselves, are in severe danger from altering the landscape, the gritty details of rhino insemination not really selling the point or urgency.

How many complicated Latin names of any animal ever do you know? None? Well if you want hundreds, this book provides. In fact entire paragraphs are devoted to lists of animals, because they all existed or have been studied by a lab, along with their scientifically accurate name. Skipping these make it a quicker read.

This feels like a book for the super science nerds Kolbert hung out with on her excursions. You won't take home anything prescriptive, you'll just grasp the lengths researchers go to measure things. To the extent it informs you about the detail and hard work of scientists, it goes a long way. It's a good book on an important topic, but I think the title loomed a little larger than what was focused on.