The Sixth Extinction

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “The Sixth Extinction,” presents compelling evidence that we are living through a mass extinction event comparable to the five previous ones in Earth’s history—except this time, we are the cause. Drawing on her travels to observe endangered species and the scientists studying them, Kolbert explains how human activity has fundamentally altered the planet’s ecosystems at a pace and scale that evolution cannot match. From amphibians dying of novel fungal diseases spread by global trade to coral reefs bleaching from ocean acidification, the markers of biological collapse are mounting.

What makes this extinction event unique is not just its cause but its speed. Previous mass extinctions unfolded over hundreds of thousands or millions of years; we are compressing similar levels of species loss into centuries or decades. Kolbert connects this to what scientists call the Anthropocene—the proposed geological epoch defined by human impact on Earth’s geology and ecosystems. Her reporting makes abstract statistics visceral: she describes holding a Panamanian golden frog, one of the last of its kind, and the strange experience of witnessing in real time what will become the fossil record of the future.

The talk avoids both despair and false optimism, instead offering a clear-eyed assessment of the biological crisis we face. For anyone seeking to understand the environmental challenges of our time beyond climate change alone, Kolbert provides essential context. The question her work raises is not whether we can stop all species loss—we can’t—but whether we can slow it enough to preserve functional ecosystems and avoid cascading collapses. It’s a call to action grounded not in ideology but in the evidence written in disappearing species across the globe.