The Sixth Extinction and Our Unraveling World

As the effects of climate change, toxic pollution, and over-exploitation of resources increasingly dominate the news, there may be an even larger threat on the horizon. By the end of this century, scientists are warning that nearly 25-50% of all species on earth could be lost, in what they are calling a "sixth extinction." Are humans on the cusp of a global extinction event of our own making? And if so, what will this mean for humanity and what can we do about it? Listen in as hosts Jessica Viñas-Nelson and Brenna Miller take a long view of environmental history with two esteemed guests, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Kolbert and historian Sam White. Learn more about how human actions have reshaped ecosystems in the past, their consequences for animal and plant diversity, and what this may mean for the future of life on earth. Guests: Elizabeth Kolbert - Journalist and author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe and the 2015 Pulitzer Prize winning book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Sam White - Associate professor at the Ohio State University specializing in environmental history, and author of A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America. An in-text version of this episode can be found at: https://origins.osu.edu/historytalk/sixth-extinction-and-our-unraveling-world