Humans are neighbors from hell. Not only are humans unable to share the planet responsibly with their fellow species, but they are also agents of the planet's imminent destruction.
Such is the claim made by Elizabeth Kolbert in her new book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
An asteroid collided with the earth and dinosaurs perished 61 million geological years ago. That was the fifth extinction the planet had suffered.
The agent of the planet's sixth extinction is man himself.
The sixth extinction isn't one large mass extinction of a species in a single fell swoop. It's an ongoing series of extinctions of several crucial species, crucial for the maintenance of the earth's ecological integrity, that would add up to reach a tipping point of a grand scale of irrevocable demise of the planet's environment.
Hurricane Sandy is said to have had a more damaging impact on New York City because of the erosion of oyster beds from the shore lines of Greater New York. In an epiphanic piece, Paul Greenberg attributes the erosion to "400 years of poor behavior on the part of humans."
Hurricane Sandy is said to have had a more damaging impact on New York City because of the erosion of oyster beds from the shore lines of Greater New York. In an epiphanic piece, Paul Greenberg attributes the erosion to "400 years of poor behavior on the part of humans."
Humans have chipped away steadily at the planet's ecological integrity over time.
Kolbert scalds our "hegemonic ideology" of that "exalts short-term thinking and ignores the true long-term cost and consequences of the choices we’re making in industry, energy policy, agriculture, forestry and politics."
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