The Sixth Extinction
An horrific yet breezy account of what is clearly a great extinction event, and may indeed already be the sixth mass extinction. This one brought to you, one way or another, by humanity.
I have read some of the author's excellent work over the years, and this is of the same high standard. Accessable, personable (breezy!) yet impeccably researched and well presented. She's funny too "then in its crazy, circus-like complexity the ant-bird-butterfly parade was actually a figure for the Amazon's stability. Only in a place where the rules of the game remain fixed is there time for butterflys to evolve to feed on the shit of birds that evolved to follow ants".
The book is equally strong in the history, science, and history of science sections. It is wonderfully structured to tell the stories of previous mass extinctions and this one through individual species and the researchers doing the work. This takes her to some wonderful places, the great barrier reef, several tropical jungles - nice work if you can get it... though the piles of bat carcasses temper that thought!
I was struck by how the small species like moss or fungi can wreak total havoc, same with small changes to sensitive systems like ocean PH.
I was also impressed by the pushing back of the beginning of the anthropocene to our elimination of megafauna - this caused major vegetation changes to entire ecosystems. There are some insightful thoughts around a 'Faustian gene' a genetic driver that causes us to simply "never stop" it is ridiculous yet wonderous that we have reached a point where we spend so much time and effort in an attempt to colonise Mars. The (sometimes unintended) consequences of this impulse spell disaster for this planet.
I was most moved by the final plight of the Great Auk. The last ever pair vainly trying to waddle away before being strangled to death for some Victorian twat's collection. Horrific. It's so easy to hate humanity, makes me want to join the ETO from "The Three Body Problem".
We have a major issue calculating 'value'. Our works of art are not priceless they are pigments on canvas, the genetic diversity of life so easily wiped out for a pittance are the real masterpieces.
I was a little worried about the book being slightly out of date, however it stands the test of time with aplomb. Some of the finer scientific details were, and still are unknown, the major conclusions all totally valid. Some of this stems from the author's presentation of some seemingly obvious points, her endeavour to seek out alternate explanations and to not simply spell out doom is appreciated by this reader. (There is still plenty of doom, don't worry if that's what you want!)