Posted: October 12th, 2016

Please get the bookElizabeth Kolbert. The Sixth Extinction. Dinosaur extinction In chapter IV, "The Luck of the Ammonites," author Elizabeth Kolbert goes over the discovery that an asteroid caused the great Fifth Extinction

Please get the bookElizabeth Kolbert. The Sixth Extinction. Dinosaur extinction In chapter IV, “The Luck of the Ammonites,” author Elizabeth Kolbert goes over the discovery that an asteroid caused the great Fifth Extinction. This is the one that killed off dinosaurs, along with the ammonites that, like all the species extinguished in this extinction, had survived for eons but were unprepared for a new, unexpected “enemy.” In Chapter V, “Welcome to the Anthropocene,” Kolbert discusses human resistance to any radical “paradigm shift” and the necessity to process disruptive information. In this case, the disruptive information is the evidence that we humans are the cause of the current Six Extinction. She uses the term “anthropocene,” which she explains is the name many scientists use to denote this new age ushered in by human impact. IShe discusses some interesting concepts like giant rats eventually taking over the planet. The next two chapters, “The Sea Around Us,” and “Dropping Acid” focus on the acidification of the world’s oceans and the impact on various animals, especially corals. Discuss what you specifically found most alarming, interesting, or strange in these chapters. Give a brief quotation to give students a better idea of what you mean