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The sixth extinction : an unnatural history / Elizabeth Kolbert.

By: Publication details: New York, NY : Bloomsbury publishing , c2014.Edition: 1st edeitionDescription: 319 p. : ill. ; 25 cmISBN:
  • 9781408851210
  • 9781408851227
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 576.84 23 KOL
LOC classification:
  • SDC 36342
Online resources: Read by Anne Twomey ; with a prologue by the author.Summary: Over the past half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining and deeply informed, Elizabeth Kolbert provides an account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of humanity's understanding of extinction from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through Lyell and Darwin and on to the present day. Kolbert shows that 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.
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Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Book Open Access Book Open Access Engineering Library 576.84 KOL 1 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 0023982

I. The Sixth Extinction
II. The Mastodon's Molars
III. The Original Pengiun
IV. The Lucky of the Ammonites
V. Welcome to the Anthropocene
VI. The Sea around Us
VII. Droping 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

Includes Index : p. 307-319

Read by Anne Twomey ; with a prologue by the author.

Over the past half billion years, there have been five major mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. In prose that is at once frank, entertaining and deeply informed, Elizabeth Kolbert provides an account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of humanity's understanding of extinction from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through Lyell and Darwin and on to the present day. Kolbert shows that 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.

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