November 11, 2014 - 19:55
Chapter 4 of this book talked about the meteor that caused the dinosaurs and many other species to become extinct. I thought it was very interesting to learn about how that discovery had been made and how controversial it was since I grew up in a time where the meteor theory was widely accepted. Kolbert talks about this event because everything on this earth is a survivor of this event. She also talks about it as a parallel to the potential upcoming extinction, saying that although most extinctions in history were slow and natural, mass extinctions have happened in the past so they can happen in the future.
Chapter 6 talked about the acidification of the oceans, something that I had quite a bit of knowledge about as a diver. Many divers are strong environmentalists as they see firsthand the effects of climate change. Kolbert talks about the massive loss of biodiversity in the ocean including the extinction of many calcifying organisms. She presents this information as a way of presenting immediate evidence of the damage already done by humans. She also says that this is just the beginning, that losses of life like the ones present in the ocean will be seen throughout all lifeforms.