Inqirāz̤-i shishum: Persiska (Farsi) 1399

The sixth extinction is an important book about the future of the world; About combining intellectual and natural history and field reporting with a powerful narrative of a mass extinction happening before our eyes. Over the past half billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically declined. Scientists around the world are monitoring the sixth mass extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time, we are the disaster. New Yorker author Elizabeth Colbert's two-time National Magazine Award-winning book The Sixth Extinction draws on and accompanies many researchers in the field: geologists who study the deep oceans; botanists who follow the lines of trees growing on the Andes and marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. He introduces us to twelve species, some extinct, others facing extinction, including the Panamanian golden frog, the staghorn coral, the giant oak, and the Sumatran rhinoceros. Through these stories, Colbert provides a shocking account of the disappearances happening around us, tracing the process of extinction as a concept, from its first expression by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris to the present day. The sixth extinction is probably humanity's most enduring legacy. As Colbert observes, it forces us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.