My independent reading book for the quarter is The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. As to my progress, I am not especially far along; just a few chapters in. Up until a few hours ago, I was going to go with a very different book, a much denser read about pure math. However, I changed my mind for reasons that I will get into.
The Sixth Extinction is a nonfiction book that reads, so far, with far more flair that would be expected. Kolbert writes about the possibility that we are on the verge of a sixth “mass extinction” that could rival the “big five” extinctions that geologists and evolutionary biologists have been able to track through the fossil record so far, the last bringing the end of the dinosaurs. Upon my early reading, one idea that Kolbert touched on was enticing. She writes of how surprising it is that we are currently witnessing a truly rare moment in natural history. There’s a level of introspective appreciation in her view that is inspiring, and she claims that her goal in writing the book is not to condemn or describe objectively, but rather communicate this awe at the scope and improbability of the current wave of extinctions. While I’m not sure if this is a topic that warrants a “discovery” or mulit-genre paper, I definitely want to allude to it in whatever I’m doing, because it’s a cool idea.
There are a number of more “nitty-gritty” details in The Sixth Extinction that could be possible roots of my eventual project. For one thing, the biological and ecological roots of the extinction is a topic that I would like to learn a bit more about; I’m sure I will find something “scientific” over the course of the book that will drive me to ask questions. For instance, in discussing a bacteria (I’ll refer to it as Bd rather than using the lengthier name), Kolbert mentions that Bd prevents frogs from absorbing necessary proteins through their skin, and those has driven species to extinction. Well, how does this prevention actually work? Why and how do frogs absorb proteins through their skin? Why now but never before? These are all questions I could do research on. Further, Kolbert spends some time, beyond natural history, to a kind of “history of natural history,” chronicling the discoveries and people that got us to our current state of natural history and extinction. With a bit of digging, I’m sure I could focus on some aspect of history in writing about this current ecological topic, whether profiling a person or the history of an idea like extinction or species.
That’s pretty much where I am so far. I’m planning on finishing my book in the next day or two in the midst of AP testing, and I’ll have much more information and focus once that happens.
This sounds like an amazing book to write a mulitgenre paper around. My goodnesss -- it is rich with all kinds of things -- imagery of animals and nature, a kind of awe (your word) and, perhaps, because I am feeling it, fear. Oh, I see so many possibilities. Read on, my friend! I am not sure I will ever be seeing you again due to AP test but hopefully it will be sometime soon. Also, use the next blog post, if you can, as a way to test out your expository possibilities. You might have something your are just explaining, you might have an argument, you might be weighing two sides of things... Do what makes sense for your topic and what you find out in reading and research.
ReplyDeleteHi Foutttyyyy,
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds very interesting, and I am also intrigued by the idea that we may be on the verge of another extinction. I have read a little bit about this and watched some videos on it. I would be curious to see a list of the factors that this book describes as reasons that we may soon go extinct. I’ve read about things such as overpopulation, CO2 levels, diseases, species extinction, etc. and I think it would be interesting for you to pick one specific topic to trace throughout history. You could analyze how this one factor has changed and how it is drastically different today.
I also would be interested to know how much this book attributes to human actions. It seems pretty clear to me that humans are interfering with the environment around them and natural selection, but I would be curious to see exactly what the cause is. Through globalization, the ecosystem of the world is becoming more and more homogenous. We are introducing species into environments where they are not naturally from, and invasive species are becoming a large problem. They are disrupting the development of other species and speeding up extinction rates.
I am sure how much original analysis there is for you to do on this subject, but it would be very interesting for you to combine many of the factors in extinction and explain how we have gotten to this point. Additionally, you could take a look at a past extinction and try to draw any parallels that you could between them. Another very interesting avenue is the selection of species that humans attempt to save from extinction. There is some evidence that says that we put far too much effort into trying to save pandas when they are not vital to our ecosystem. There are other species (such as mangroves) that are more important but do not get as much attention. Here is a link to a thought provoking video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEMtc1w4z6c
-BQ