In chapter 3 Kolbert introduces two words; a catastrophist which means a scientist who believed that the history of the planet was characterized by sudden, global catastrophes that caused large numbers of species to go extinct and the opposite, a uniformitarian which means one that believes the earth’s crust and geological history was founded on a slow and continuous uniform process. Thes difference goes hand in hand with the concept of extinction. Charles Lyell an example of a uniformitarian proposed that, while some species certainly went extinct, extinction was a slow, gradual process, not a sudden, catastrophic mass-death. Charles Darwin admired the work of Lyell which led him to the idea of natural selection; as well as his long voyages. Darwin’s theory of natural selection was revolutionary because it was based on the premise that there are too many species competing for too few resources. Thereafter the chapter goes into discuss how settlers in iceland exploited an ancient penguin-like bird, the great auk. They used it for food, oil and its feathers. This led to the extinction of this animal, even after attempts of its protection. This relates to the theme that Humans alter natural systems. On page 61 it states “Whether the teams [European hunters] actually managed to kill off every last one of the island’s auks or whether the slaughter simply reduced the colony to the point that it became vulnerable to other forces is unclear. (Diminishing population density may have made survival less likely for the remaining individuals, a phenomenon known as the Allee effect.)” The slaughtering of animals like the great auks proves detrimental to their species. This case proves to be a little different in comparison to the frogs in Panama- although the frogs were transported to other parts of the world with the chytrid fungi exposing it to other species.
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