Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker. She is the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and children.
[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.
--President Barack Obama
"Riveting . . . It is not possible to overstate the importance of
Kolbert's book." --San Francisco Chronicle "Arresting . . .
Ms. Kolbert shows in these pages that she can write with elegiac
poetry about the vanishing creatures of this planet, but the real
power of her book resides in the hard science and historical
context she delivers here, documenting the mounting losses that
human beings are leaving in their wake." --The New York
Times "Surprisingly breezy, entirely engrossing, and frequently
entertaining . . . Kolbert is a masterful, thought-provoking
reporter." --The Boston Globe "Your view of the world will
be fundamentally changed. . . . Kolbert is an astute observer,
excellent explainer, and superb synthesizer, and even manages to
find humor in her subject matter." --The Seattle Times
"Powerful . . . An invaluable contribution to our understanding."
--Al Gore, The New York Times Book Review "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." --Bill Gates "[Kolbert] makes a
page-turner out of even the most sober and scientifically demanding
aspects of extinction." --New York Magazine "Ms. Kolbert's
lively account is thought-provoking." --The Wall Street
Journal "[Kolbert] grounds her stories in rigorous science and
memorable characters past and present, building a case that a mass
extinction is underway, whether we want to admit it or not."
--Discover Magazine "Throughout her extensive and
passionately collected research, Kolbert offers a highly readable,
enlightening report on the global and historical impact of humans .
. . a highly significant eye-opener rich in facts and enjoyment."
--Kirkus (starred review) "The factoids Kolbert tosses off
about nature's incredible variety--a frog that carries eggs in its
stomach and gives birth through its mouth, a wood stork that cools
off by defecating on its own legs--makes it heartbreakingly clear,
without any heavy-handed sermonizing from the author, just how much
we lose when an animal goes extinct. In the same way, her intrepid
reporting from far-off places--Panama, Iceland, Italy, Scotland,
Peru, the Amazonian rain forest of Brazil, and the remote one tree
Island, off the coast of Australia--gives us a sense of the earth's
vastness and beauty." --Bookforum "Kolbert accomplishes an
amazing feat in her latest book, which superbly blends the
depressing facts associated with rampant species extinctions and
impending ecosystem collapse with stellar writing to produce a text
that is accessible, witty, scientifically accurate, and impossible
to put down." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Rendered
with rare, resolute, and resounding clarity, Kolbert's compelling
and enlightening report forthrightly addresses the most significant
topic of our lives." --Booklist (starred review) "An epic,
riveting story of our species that reads like a scientific
thriller--only more terrifying because it is real. Like Rachel
Carson's Silent Spring, Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth
Extinction is destined to become one of the most important and
defining books of our time." --David Grann, author of The Lost
City of Z "I tore through Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth
Extinction with a mix of awe and terror. Her long view of
extinction excited my joy in life's diversity -- even as she made
me aware how many species are currently at risk." --Dava Sobel,
author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter "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. A
remarkable addition to the literature of our haunted epoch."
--Bill McKibben, author Oil and Honey: The Education of an
Unlikely Activist "Elizabeth Kolbert's cautionary tale, The
Sixth Extinction, offers us a cogent overview of a harrowing
biological challenge. The reporting is exceptional, the
contextualizing exemplary. Kolbert stands at the forefront of what
it means to be a socially responsible American writer today."
--Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams "The sixth mass
extinction is the biggest story on Earth, period, and Elizabeth
Kolbert tells it with imagination, rigor, deep reporting, and a
capacious curiosity about all the wondrous creatures and ecosystems
that exist, or have existed, on our planet. The result is an
important book full of love and loss." --David Quammen, author
of The Song of the Dodo and Spillover "Elizabeth Kolbert writes
with an aching beauty of the impact of our species on all the other
forms of life known in this cold universe. The perspective is at
once awe-inspiring, humbling and deeply necessary." --T.C.
Boyle, author of San Miguel
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