Chapter 13: The Thing With Feathers

  In the final chapter of The Sixth Extinction, we are taken on the final trip to San Diego where the Institute for Conservative Research is located. While at ICR, she witnesses the last genetic remains of several extinct species. Species such as the Hawaiian bird, the black-faced honeycreeper. Throughout most of the book, there has been constant ridicule on humans and how we’re destroying the world. So I was not surprised when Kolbert began to question if humans could think of other species besides themselves and hopefully save other species. (Q) I agree though, I questioned the same thing in a previous blog entry, can a capitalist society ever stop being selfish? Nevertheless, Kolbert does point out that there is progress being made when it comes to saving endangered species. This can be shown through the Endangered Species Act of 1974, created to prevent the extinction of species. She, later on, talks about Barbra Durrant, a reproductive physiologist who is doing positive things to help the planet. (E) It was nice to know she ended the book on a positive note instead of the constant negativity that was being mentioned. It feels as though that was for a purpose. She talks about the negative things but by ending on a positive note we as readers have hope for the future, and will hopefully be apart of that bright future.