The sixth extinction An unnatural history

THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History By Elizabeth Kolbert/Henry Holt & Company, $28. Kolbert reports from the front lines of the violent collision between civilization and our planet's ecosystem - from the Great Barrier Reef to her own backyard - in this, her third, book. Traveling to some of the world's remotest corners, she examines how man-made climate change threatens to eliminate 20 to 50 percent of all living species on earth within this century. This is environmental writing at its most rigorous and richly detailed - and as riveting as any thriller.

In this deeply felt and well-researched report, Kolbert (Field Notes from a Catastrophe) argues that, unlike prior mass extinction events that were caused by natural disasters, the current accelerated disappearance of animal and plant species can be blamed on human activities. Adopting the term Anthropocene, as first coined by Eugene F. Stoermer, Kolbert contends that the advent of humans as the dominant species on Earth marks a distinct geologic age during which the environment is shaped not by nature but by humans. She further explains that environmental changes are happening at a rate faster than that which can be accommodated by normal evolutionary processes, hastening the demise of species ranging from amphibians to bats to coral reefs. The narration by Anne Twomey is solid, if occasionally robotic. verdict An important book, highly recommended. ["This solid, engaging, multidisciplinary science title should appeal to a broad range of science enthusiasts, particularly those interested in environmental conservation," read the starred review of the Holt hc, LJ 2/15/14.]-Forrest E. Link, Coll. of New Jersey, Ewing Twp. (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.