Per gli amanti di Collapse di Diamond, un best seller del Pulizer Elizabeth Kolbert<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45840.Elizabeth_Kolbert> <http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/17910054-the-sixth-extinction> [The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History]<http://www.goodreads.com/book/photo/17910054-the-sixth-extinction> The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert<http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/45840.Elizabeth_Kolbert> WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. The Sixth Extinction draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines-geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, and marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. Elizabeth Kolbert, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award andNew Yorker writer, accompanies many of these researchers into the field, and introduces you to a dozen species-some already gone, others facing extinction-that are being affected by the sixth extinction. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human. (less)<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910054-the-sixth-extinction> ... we now find ourselves in the midst of a great extinction event, the sixth to strike our planet over the last half billion years. Past culprits have included asteroid impacts, which did for the dinosaurs 66m years ago, and soaring carbon dioxide levels which, 252m years ago, triggered extreme global warming and the extinctions of 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species. "As in Tolstoy, every extinction event appears to be unhappy, and fatally so, in its own way," adds Kolbert. The crucial point about the current extinction is that the agent involved is not an inanimate object or a geophysical force but a living creature, Homo sapiens. We may have succeeded extravagantly on Earth but we have done so at the expense of just about every other species. Hardcover, 319 pages Published February 11th 2014 by Henry Holt and Co. (Georg von Holtzbrinck) Original Title The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History ISBN 0805092994 (ISBN13: 9780805092998) Edition Language English URL http://us.macmillan.com/thesixthextinction-1/ElizabethKolbert Literary Awards Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (2015)<http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/16-pulitzer-prize>, Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology (2014)<http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/3812-los-angeles-times-book-prize>, PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Nominee (2015)<http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/7676-pen-e-o-wilson-literary-science-wri...>, Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Nonfiction (2015)<http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/15198-andrew-carnegie-medal>, Kirkus Prize Nominee for Nonfiction (Finalist) (2014)<http://www.goodreads.com/award/show/20886-kirkus-prize> ...more<http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910054-the-sixth-extinction> Questo messaggio e i suoi allegati sono indirizzati esclusivamente alle persone indicate. La diffusione, copia o qualsiasi altra azione derivante dalla conoscenza di queste informazioni sono rigorosamente vietate. Qualora abbiate ricevuto questo documento per errore siete cortesemente pregati di darne immediata comunicazione al mittente e di provvedere alla sua distruzione, Grazie. This e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may contain privileged information intended for the addressee(s) only. Dissemination, copying, printing or use by anybody else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and any attachments and advise the sender by return e-mail, Thanks. [rispetta l'ambiente]Rispetta l'ambiente. Non stampare questa mail se non ? necessario.