The Sixth Extinction
Supplemental Reading Report
By: Elizabeth Kolbert
The reasons as to why I have chosen this book is because I have always found it fascinating about what people consider to be the next extinction level event. There are those, like myself and Ms. Kolbert, who believe that mankind will lead themselves into their own extinction level event. Instead of rather an environmental disaster such as a meteor crashing into the planet. In the short non-fictional narrative, The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert, the story encompasses how all of mankind in general is basically becoming the cancer to the Earth. Moreover, the story is also encompassing how humans are leading themselves to their own extinction level event. Throughout the story the audience is presented multiple examples of how mankind is virtually killing the planet on which we live upon. Everything from deforestation, to the pollution of the air that would lead to the destruction of the very atmosphere of the planet. Wiping out all mankind that thrives upon the continued existence of the natural resources that encompass the planet itself.
· In the Sixth Extinction, environmental rhetoric is paramount throughout the continuation of the book. Elizabeth Kolbert uses multiple instances showing mankind threatening their own lives with the choices they have made over the years. The opening chapter of the book goes into detail about just a few of these such as, nuclear testing and deforestation.
· When it comes to culture Ms. Kolbert explains this by using the various nationalities from around the world as an example to explain how human being perceive the environment. Humans either take the resources they use for granted, or try to maintain the environment in the hopes of negating this sixth extinction.
· The author of the story is Elizabeth Kolbert, an American journalist for the New Yorker Magazine and a part time author. Her book, The Sixth Extinction, won her the Pulitzer Prize.
· The rhetorical situation of the Sixth Extinction is fundamentally the representation of the fact that mankind is destroying the planet, and they are taking for granted that their actions will not have consequences.
· This book aligns with the course for a number of reasons. The main reason, however, is that this book exemplifies how humans need to start taking better care of the environment. In much the same way as we have come to do so in this course by appreciating what nature has to offer people. Even being a representation of our gardening excursions detailing how and why it is important for use to make sure the world is healthy.
· The social injustice of facing vulnerable communities is quite paramount within this book. Ms. Kolbert has explained how a lackluster environment that has been plagued by human activity becomes unplottable for future cultivation. Where humans need to farm they cannot because they have stripped the very land of all of its resources from the animals to the water.
· Motivation for this book can be looked at a variety of forms. It can be seen with the wars that ravage the planet, or the destruction caused from human interaction within the environment. For example, there is a forest fire ravaging California that has left people homeless, and the land destroyed, does this not incite a reaction to people, like Ms. Kolbert, wanting to talk about how humans have virtually done this to themselves?
· The intended audience could virtually be anyone with the point Ms. Kolbert is trying to get across. However, to be more realistic the actual audience could be anyone old enough to understand, and read, this book. This could possibly be anyone that is a freshman in highschool and older because of the fact that this problem impact the entire world as a whole. No person is exempt to not take head of what Ms. Kolbert is trying to say.
· Rhetorical agency in this work is basically the people used for the overall the choices that happen to impact the planet in any way. It could be farmers, politicians, or even the common college student like myself. This is because no matter who we are we have the power to make a difference, and no that is not from a chessey movie.
· The key terms that relate to this story can be any number of cataclysmic words, but extinction is probably the most relative of the words. This is due to the fact that extinction has a very deep meaning, and having people understand that an extinction can lead to they, humans, themselves can be a very powerful motivator.
· Shaping the environmental citizenship through the use of a rhetoric, is a very thoughtful way to display how important it is that people keep our planet healthy. Most of the time a report about the extinction of the human race becomes either one of two things, a scholarly article or a fictional book. Mainly for the reason that it gets people to read it, with a scholarly article you have people in the learning sphere to hear your work, such as college students or professor. With a fictional book you can display an extinction level event by using it to create a world that people could possibly be looking forward to if they do not head what is being said by the author.
· When it comes to understanding environmental issue the rhetorical approaches that I use is taking stories such as the Sixth Extinction and compare it to what is going on in todays world. Nations and politics constantly at each other throats with verbal threats. The environment literally burning, and nobody bats an eye unless it happens to them. There are numerous way that I look at stories like this one, but the problem is that not very many others do, or not the ones who have the most power to do so in the long run.
· This book helped me understand a number of thematic units that I have come to gather over the course of the semester. The main one that popped out to me, however, was the Cultivation of Food. Fundamentally, humans rely on their power to plant and grow food from a variety of sources. Whether it be by growing plants, raising animals, or ringing in water mankind thrives upon using food as a source of power. This power can be seen with keeping their bodies maintained and even keeping their checkbooks healthy. If anything this book presented to me just how important it is that humans need to understand, as a whole, that the world is not getting any bigger, but we are as a species and if we are not carful then we could be leading ourselves to our own doom.
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