The Sixth Extinction Chapter 1

El Valle de Anton is a small town in the center of Panama. The town is close to a forest that serves as the home to golden frogs. Despite being highly toxic and so dangerous that its poison could kill thousands of mice these frogs have had an immense impact on the culture of those in El Valle who use them as a sign of good luck. These frogs that were once found frequently began to disappear. Amphibians are facing a crisis that endangered the existence of multiple species, including the golden frogs of Panama. With extreme urgency, the El Valle Conservation Center began to work towards preserving endangered species of amphibians by putting them in a controlled environment where they could work towards a solution. Sounds reasonable right? Well, it’s not that simple because before even trying to save the endangered amphibians EVACC’s director, Edgardo Griffith, and his team had to find the problem that is making them disappear. Time also needs to be accounted for because as it’s stated on page 10, “we are losing all these amphibians before we even know that they exist.” Despite these challenges and the limited resource of EVACC, they were able to discover that an invasive species was the cause for the disappearance of amphibians in the rainforest. To be more specific, the ecosystem was exposed to BD, which is an intrusive bacterium that is killing amphibians at a dramatic pace. Well now that we know the problem we can solve it right? Not quite, we know that BD can easily be killed through disinfection but disinfecting an entire ecosystem as big as the rainforest is impossible. The only hope for endangered species of amphibians is for them to be preserved until it’s safe for them to inhabit the rainforest once again. Are we able to preserve all the amphibians in danger, and how long until the rainforest is safe again? This is a question can only be answered with time but what we know for certain is that amphibians are in great danger and with it is the stability of the ecosystem they inhabit.

This chapter connects to the idea that technology is increasing the rates and ways that humans impact the environment. An example of this is how this crisis started "One theory has it that BD was moved around the globe with shipments of African Clawed frogs, which were used in the nineteen-fifties and sixties in pregnancy tests." (Kolbert 18) The development of pregnancy tests led to the demand for this invasive species. Which ultimately impacted the ecosystem as it started this crisis that puts in danger many species. This goes to show that as technology advances, humans are impacting the environment in more drastic ways than before. This left me wondering if we can use technology to fix the wrongs we've done to the environment?