Download The Age of Extinction

BOOK ¨ REVIEW
The Age of Extinction
Prasanna Venkhatesh V
The Sixth Extinction:
An Unnatural History
Elizabeth Kolbert
Bloomsbury Paperbacks,
Pages: 336, 2014, Price: ~`250
(ISBN-13:9781408868218)
Or
[Kindle Edition], Amazon Digital South
Asia Services, Inc.
Pages: 336, 2014, Price: ~`182
(3362 KB, ASIN: B00HXEF3V2)
“If you want to think about why humans are so
dangerous to other species, you can picture a
poacher in Africa carrying an AK-47 or a
logger in the Amazon gripping an axe, or
better still, you can picture yourself, holding a
book on your lap.” [I bought the ebook and I
will recommend the reader to do the same].
The Earth has seen 5 mass extinction events
(Big five) in its geological history, but now
owing to the human activity on the planet we
are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction
event. About 20–50% of the species that share
the Earth with us are expected to be completely eliminated by the end of this century,
for various reasons which are fundamentally
man made. The author makes this point clearly
and gives substantial evidence supporting the
claim. The book is well written in a lucid way
with interviews of prominent scientists, environmentalists and ecologists. The scientific
content of the book is also backed up with
good main stream peer-reviewed articles. Each
of the thirteen chapters of this book represents
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an emblematic creature that is either extinct
or faces the threat of extinction. You can also
find the intellectual history of the concept of
extinction which predates the concept of evolution by half a century.
The author elucidates, with ample examples,
that the causes underlying the future of extinctions is not just a single factor. Rather, a
combination of many things that are manmade. Since the industrial revolution, around
320 species have already been wiped out.
Megafauna, in particular, face the highest rate
of decline. The reasons include deforestation,
fragmentation of habitats and introduction of
non-native invasive species that wipe out native population, poaching, overharvest and
hunting leading to direct destruction of species, unintentional introduction of pathogens
from different parts of the world, and changes
in global climate caused by over utilization of
the fossil fuels. In this book one can find
striking examples of the loss of biodiversity
due to the reasons mentioned above. In spite
of the fact that many factors are affecting the
biodiversity of the planet, climate change has
an effect which will dwarf the other possible
reasons for the elimination of many of the
species on Earth.
The world’s appetite for energy remains voracious and our carbon footprint is astounding.
Humans are using the land, atmosphere and
the ocean as a wasteland. Every day, more
than 90 million tons of gaseous wastes are
released into the atmosphere. By doing this
we are indirectly wreaking havoc on the
Earth’s delicately balanced ecosystems. The
RESONANCE ¨ August 2015
BOOK ¨ REVIEW
enormous rate at which we are burning coal
and oil deposits is rapidly warming our planet.
It took Earth millions of years to sequester
carbon. By burning fossil fuels, we are pushing it back into the atmosphere in less than
half a century. In the author’s words, “We are
running the geological history not only in
reverse but at warp speed”. It is not just CO2
and other greenhouse gases; there are other
purely man-made chemicals such as CFCs
(chloro-fluoro- carbons) which are out there
in the atmosphere. What is startling is the fact
that each chlorine atom that reaches the stratosphere, has the potential to deplete 1,00,000
ozone molecules. The lifetime of the CFCs
that are emitted into the atmosphere is about
100 years and it will take about half a century
to mend the ozone that has been depleted by
the emissions that took place in the past.
Thanks to the Montreal Protocol, CFC emission levels have been brought down, preventing further depletion of ozone in the atmosphere.
The increasing average global temperature
has clear effects on flora and fauna, and the
author compares the impact of temperature
rise on various ecosystems. Animal, plant and
insect species have been pushed far beyond
their native range. By altering the complex
web of living species we are risking the future
viability of our civilization and also putting
our survival in grave danger. The author has
chosen Eastern Peru, the edge of the Andes, to
portray the decline in the floral biodiversity.
The Great Barrier Reef – the marine equivalent of the Amazon rain forests in terms of its
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biodiversity – hosts more than 6000 species
that include invertebrates, plants, fishes, birds.
450 million people rely on the reefs for their
food and survival. Ocean acidification, often
referred to as an evil twin of climate change,
has tremendous adverse effects on the marine
ecosystem. In the recent past, a significant
fraction of the coral population has been depleted, and coral bleaching events are becoming frequent. The author elegantly captures
the difference between humans and other species by saying, “The way corals change the
world – with huge construction projects spanning multiple generations – might be likened
to the way that humans do, with this crucial
difference. Instead of displacing other creatures, corals support them.”
The author gives good examples of how the
native population of a species is destroyed by
invasive species that unintentionally get there.
We have altered global flora and fauna to the
extent that in some parts of the world, the nonnative species outnumber the native species.
By doing so we are undoing millions of years
of geographic separation of species, creating
what is sometimes called as the New Pangaea.
Even though the author does not provide any
prescription for mending the cur rent
biodiversity crisis, her attempt is to create
awareness among the general public about the
current situation and the impending catastrophe. She successfully conveys that the choices
that we make today will have an enormous
impact on the biodiversity of our planet in the
long run.
I recently heard a podcast by BBC Radio 4
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BOOK ¨ REVIEW
which discussed how sea birds are affected by
plastic wastes. According to one study, nearly
a third of all the sea birds around the world
have plastics in their stomach. It is shocking
to know that we are slowly wiping out other
species on earth because of our carelessness.
As I write, the Great Indian Bustard is becoming locally extinct at the Rollapadu Wildlife
Sanctuary in Andra Pradesh. Fewer than 200
individuals are found in other parts of the
country. We are effectively destroying the
beauty, the variety and the richness of the
world, which has taken millions of years to
evolve. We have now reached a tipping point.
Prevent or Perish
Prasanna Venkhatesh V
The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life
and the Future of Mankind
Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin
We can proceed to do things as we always
have done – with very little regard or concern
for the future. Alternatively, small changes
that each of us makes in our current lifestyle
could help reduce the pace of change and save
the planet for our future generations. After
reading this book one is left with a lot of grief
and anger, which should be channelled to
prevent the planet from the upcoming danger.
I strongly recommend this book to everybody
and also request every individual who has
read this book to spread the awareness among
others. It is a must read for every student.
and Roger Lewin give numerous persuasive
reasons for saving the biodiversity and its
inherent values which benefit humanity. Although first published 19 years ago, sadly the
state of affairs has not changed even now and
it appears that the contents are fresh.
Anchor Books, Reprint Edition,
Pages:288, 1996.
Paperback, Price: ~`650
(ISBN-13:9780385468091)
This book is a predecessor to Elizabeth
Kolbert’s, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. The central themes of both these
books are the same; however there are subtle
differences. While both the books talk about
the eroding diversity of life on our planet at an
alarming rate by anthropogenic activities,
Elizabeth Kolbert lays more emphasis on the
role of climate change whereas Richard Leaky
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The authors perfectly blend various concepts
from geology, palaeontology, anthropology,
ecology, evolutionary biology and conservation biology to give a cogent picture of the life
on planet Earth in the past, present and future.
To aid this, the authors discuss the history of
ideas like catastrophism, extinction, uniformitarianism and evolution originally proposed
by giants like Cuvier, Charles Lyell and
Charles Darwin. The authors present excerpts
from the works of highly acclaimed scientists
including E O Wilson, Jared Diamond,
Stephen J Gould, David Tillman, James
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