Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week's best science picks.
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Barbara Kiser is Nature's books and arts editor.
- Barbara Kiser
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Kiser, B. Books in brief. Nature 546, 597 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/546597a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/546597a
Phil Sandine
In Kiser's review of The Ends of the World she wrote: "In the middle of Earth's 'sixth mass extinction', we might recall that the other five were no picnic".
So far, there is no credible evidence that we are in a "mass extinction". A recent article in the Atlantic supports that statement; excerpts from the article.
?As scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.?
....I had a chance to sit down with Erwin after his talk at the annual geology conference.
?If we?re really in a mass extinction......go get a case of scotch,? he said.
.... trying to stop a mass extinction after it?s started would be a little like calling for a building?s preservation while it?s imploding.
?People who claim we?re in the sixth mass extinction don?t understand enough about mass extinctions to understand the logical flaw in their argument,? he said. ?To a certain extent they?re claiming it as a way of frightening people into action, when in fact, if it?s actually true we?re in a sixth mass extinction, then there?s no point in conservation biology.?
This is because by the time a mass extinction starts, the world would already be over.
?So if we really are in the middle of a mass extinction,? I started, ?it wouldn?t be a matter of saving tigers and elephants??
?Right, you probably have to worry about saving coyotes and rats.
....?I think that if we keep things up long enough, we?ll get to a mass extinction, but we?re not in a mass extinction yet, and I think that?s an optimistic discovery because that means we actually have time to avoid Armageddon,? he said.
Erwin?s other point, that the magnitude of the Big Five mass extinctions in earth?s past dwarfs humanity?s destruction thus far, is a subtle one. He?s not trying to downplay the tremendous destruction wrought by humans, but reminding us that claims about mass extinctions are inevitably claims about paleontology and the fossil record.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ science/archive/2017/06/the- ends-of-the-world/529545/
Phil