Elizabeth Kolbert wrote The Sixth Extinction to study the ecological implications and an abnormal natural history and the relationship between human beings and the environment and everyone needs to know about that.
"The Sixth Mass Extinction" is Elizabeth Colbert's most famous work on environmental protection, and is called "Silent Spring" of our time by readers.
Elizabeth Colbert, through the five mass extinctions in the original event, leads readers to review these catastrophic events and at the same time makes readers realize that human beings are triggering the arrival of a new era of mass extinction.
This article analyzes the extinction practices experienced by typical species in "The Sixth Great Extinction", traces the historical and ideological roots of their extinction, and reveals the ideological role of anthropocentrism in leading to the sixth mass extinction of species, alerting readers We must resolutely resist anthropocentrism and establish a correct ecological holism.
Related Topics:
- Why did Elizabeth Kolbert write The Sixth Extinction?
- Book Review: The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Colbert; "The Sixth Mass Extinction"; Anthropocentrism; Ecological Holism
As a non-fiction novel, Elizabeth Colbert's "The Sixth Extinction" introduces the writing skills of novels while writing news reports, so that readers can feel more immersive when faced with boring data.
Generally, it enables readers to resonate strongly with the events reported in the news and makes it easier for readers to understand the writer's true feelings about real social events.
The publication of "The Sixth Great Extinction" was very popular in the field of non-fiction novels.
It was awarded the title of "Top Ten Best Books of the Year" by the "New York Times" and authoritative magazines such as "The Economist", "Fortune" and "Wall Street Journal" Was named the best work of the year.
Elizabeth Colbert and The Sixth Extinction
The author of "The Sixth Mass Extinction", Elizabeth Kolbert (Elizabeth Kolbert) is a well-known journalist in the United States, mainly engaged in ecological and environmental research.
She is also an excellent science writer and an environmental observer for The New Yorker and commentators.
Elizabeth Colbert's writing is scientific and rigorous, and at the same time has a pungent sense of humor.
She is good at observation and has clear logic and vivid descriptions, so she is very popular among the American people.
Elizabeth Colbert once published works such as "Notes on Cataclysm: Man, Nature and Climate Change".
The sense of social responsibility, keen observation, and cutting-edge awareness of social ecology carried in her literary works are deeply loved by readers.
It is no exaggeration for Colbert to call it the most ecologically missionary literary writer.
In order to make her popular science works scientific and rigorous, Elizabeth Colbert once visited the global ecological scene, supported them with powerful data, combined with her own scientific knowledge of the biological world, and combined with the changes of the times.
The cutting-edge theory of ecological holism, in 2014, wrote a modern version of "Silent Spring" for readers - "The Sixth Extingction-An Abnormal Natural History" (The Sixth Extingction-An Unnatural History).
Once the book was published, it aroused enthusiastic repercussions in European and American societies and was sought after by the media and praised by academic circles.
Elizabeth Colbert shows readers an overall outline of the ecological environment in our era, that is, we do live in an extraordinary technological era, where convenience and comfortable living conditions are everywhere, But we are quietly experiencing the sixth mass extinction era.
In November 2019, the bushfires in Australia confirmed that the era of the sixth mass extinction of species has arrived.
The Australian bushfires spread rapidly, the sky was shrouded in blood, and Australians fled their homes.
According to press time, this forest fire has been burning for more than 3 months, and its burning area is still expanding.
The death and disappearance of people, and more than 500 million animals were burnt into ashes, the sky was filled with gunpowder smoke, and animal corpses were scattered all over the field.
Everything here shocked human beings. Moreover, for those species that were already on the verge of extinction, this fire ruined their hope of survival.
Koalas are naturally slow and clumsy and are deeply loved by people all over the world.
However, in the engulfment of this bushfire, more than 25,000 koalas became their last home.
Pushed to the brink of extinction. Kangaroos are tall and known for their speed, but they are also not immune to bad luck.
The bushfires spread to Kangaroo Island, Australia's third largest island, burning about 150,000 hectares of forest and killing an unimaginable number of kangaroos.
In this fire, the species living in the virgin forest are on the verge of extinction. The people of Australia lost everything and became homeless refugees for a while.
The sky was stained with blood, swallowing the hope of the Australian people.
Through careful reading of the ecological wisdom in Elizabeth Colbert's "The Sixth Mass Extinction - An Abnormal Natural History", combined with the case analysis of the Australian bushfire in November 2019, readers can also be like scientists Like biologists and biologists, ecological consciousness arises spontaneously,
And we are gradually aware of the sixth mass extinction that is currently occurring. Tracing its origin, it lies in us human beings.
"The Sixth Mass Extinction: An Abnormal Natural History" consists of thirteen chapters
In the book, Elizabeth Kolbert (Elizabeth Kolbert) presents the signs of biological extinction for readers, and species disappear in fragments.
In the Amazon rainforest, in the Andes where the temperature is rising sharply, in the outer waters of the Great Barrier Reef, what is more serious, if human beings have not realized that species are experiencing the sixth mass extinction, if human beings still If nothing is done about it, then the extinction of species will happen in the homes of the people.
"Theory of Evolution" and "Theory of Mutations"
Elizabeth Colbert's "The Sixth Mass Extinction-An Abnormal Natural History" consists of thirteen chapters.
The first part mainly shows readers the end of the Ordovician, the late Devonian, and the Permian The five mass extinctions experienced by species during the End, Late Triassic, and End Cretaceous periods.
During these five mass extinctions, "a large class of once-dominant organisms may disappear completely, or be relegated to a secondary role, almost as if the entire planet is undergoing a change of direction.
Such large-scale species loss Leads paleontologists to speculate that during mass extinction events—and in addition to the so-called five mass extinctions, there have been many similar events on a smaller scale—the usual rules of survival no longer hold.
Changes in environmental conditions are So violent, so rapid, or both, that evolution simply cannot keep up.
In fact, traits that are normally a threat to survival can become lethal in this extremely abnormal environment.
In "The Sixth Mass Extinction", Elizabeth Colbert dared to break the biological thinking pattern of the origin and extinction of species. The indelible impact on other species in terms of thinking and actions.
According to Elizabeth Colbert, Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution has been difficult to explain the root cause of biological extinction.
The theory of biological evolution emphasizes the concepts of evolution and evolution and is used to explain the changes in the development of species, that is, the biological evolution process of species from simple to complex.
Although Darwin's theory of biological evolution is important in the process of species research, it ignores the impact of human life on the earth on biological species, and cleverly avoids the extinction disaster caused by anthropocentrism.
So the theory of biological evolution has long been a tool to justify crimes of anthropocentric thoughts and behaviors.
Darwin believed that the evolution and evolution of species was accomplished through natural selection, during which competition among species played a decisive role, which completely isolated humans from activities in nature and ignored the impact of human carbon footprints.
Therefore, Darwin's biological "evolution theory" was influenced by George Cuvier's (Cuvier Geroge 1769-1832) "catastrophism" (Catastrophism; Convulsionism's strong attack.
Cuvier's theory, he believes that the extinction of most species on the earth or the change of biological species can be attributed to sudden, rapid, and catastrophic.
In Cuvier's view, the earth often suffers catastrophic changes, such as the drying up of oceans, volcanic eruptions, floods, and extreme changes in climate.
Under such rapid natural ecological changes, biological species are also suffering extinction disasters.
In the event of the extinction of the American mastodon, Cuvier's "mutation theory" was confirmed.
The extinction of the American mastodon also wiped out the mammoth and the giant sloth, a phenomenon we now know as the megafauna extinction.
However, Cuvier also ignored the role of humans in this mass extinction and did not notice that the mass extinction of megafauna and the expansion of humans occurred almost simultaneously, and more and more biologists and geologists are more Tend to the close relationship between human expansion and extinction.
The ecological theme of "The Sixth Mass Extinction"——an attack on anthropocentrism
After reading "The Sixth Mass Extinction" carefully, readers will feel the awe of nature and biological species. The whole documentary novel is scientific and rigorous.
The author Elizabeth Colbert personally visited the global ecology On-site, after many experiments and verifications, it uses vivid and easy-to-understand language to describe to readers what it has seen and heard on the global ecological scene and conveys to readers,
The perception of the global ecological environment so that readers can simply and easily understand Relevant knowledge of ecology, biology, and geology reveals to readers.
The ecological theme to be conveyed in this book, that is, the destruction of global ecology by anthropocentric thoughts and behaviors is everywhere, and the behind-the-scenes operations of the sixth mass extinction Hands are humans themselves, and humans are reaping the consequences.
In the seventh chapter "Falling Acid", Elizabeth Colbert mentioned the extinction of the Acropora porous, and called it one of "the most wonderful things in the world". Coral reefs have become broken coral particles, as small as marbles, and as large as pebbles.
The extinction of the Acropora proposals lends credence to Ken Caldeira's "ocean acidification" theory.
In the industrial age, factories emit a lot of carbon dioxide, and some factories even plan to separate the carbon dioxide in the chimney and inject it into the ocean so that it can emit pollutants.
According to Ken Caldeira's precise calculations, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by humans under normal human activities has an amazing impact on ocean acidification. Marine organisms have very strict requirements for the living environment of the ocean.
The imbalance of ocean pH will most affect the coral reef and the associated marine ecosystem. Coral polyps use calcium carbonate to form skeletons, which eventually aggregate to form beautiful coral reefs, which in turn become sanctuaries for marine life, providing shelter for species such as fish.
The acidification of the ocean directly dissolves the calcium carbonate that forms coral reefs, and the "calcium-deficient" coral reefs slowly bleach and eventually disappear into the ocean.
Under the dominance of anthropocentrism, human beings wantonly destroy nature and interfere with the overall ecological system of nature for their own self-interest, which eventually causes ocean acidification. This kind of catastrophic damage to nature is obviously irreparable.
In addition, human beings are meeting the needs of their own agricultural production. In the process of agricultural planting, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers has caused agricultural products to undergo a series of chain reactions.
The acidified agricultural products are eaten by humans, and the acidified substances are subtly eroding with the human body. The acidification of the soil, for a long time, will make the land barren, and more seriously, it will cause the break of the human food chain.
Conclusion: The Sixth Extinction
Elizabeth Colbert upholds the sense of ecological responsibility and shoulders the ecological mission of creating a better future for human beings.
She personally experienced the global ecological scene and used vivid words, concise ecological theory, biological theory, and geological theory to show readers what human beings are all about.
The unseen ecological changes are a reminder that the era of the sixth mass extinction of mankind is coming quietly, and the sixth mass extinction is different from the past.
The mass extinction of modern society is the expansion of human beings, human pollution of nature and The wanton exploitation of natural resources is closely related.
Elizabeth Colbert severely criticized the behavior of anthropocentrism between words and even warned that human beings should abandon the idea of anthropocentrism with "the extinction event may happen in your backyard", and then awaken the ecological integrity of human beings' ideology.
