Šesté vymírání - Nepřirozený příběh – Kolbertová Elizabeth (2018)

American author Elizabeth Kolbert has chosen to frame the detective-like story of the sixth extinction, which is unfolding right before our eyes, within the context of catastrophic changes our planet has undergone in the distant past, changes so painful that they drastically reduced life's diversity. She clarifies the intricate and fascinating history of their discovery against the backdrop of disputes among great naturalists who laid the foundations of the disciplines from which evolutionary theory emerged. However, the latest scientific findings from astronomy, geology, biology, and genetics also play an equally important role here. Through the fates of various animal species – from dinosaurs and ammonites to the megafauna of the last Ice Age and species that have gone extinct very recently – she tracks the general patterns of mass extinctions as well as what distinguishes them and what is specific to today's threat to biodiversity. However, the majority of the book describes what is happening in the present – in the remnants of the Amazon rainforest, on the rapidly warming slopes of the Andes, on the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef, and in the immediate surroundings of each of us. In this context, we can better understand the consequences of changes in atmospheric composition, ocean acidification, or the spread of invasive species and...