The Sixth Extinction

What Hacker News says

1. jebarkerDec 2025
   My top reads this year:

   - How to Tame a Fox - great popsci history of a genetics experiment

   - "The Sixth Extinction" and "Not the end of the world" - compelling but contrasting takes on climate change

   - Through Two Doors at Once - posci history of the double slit experiment

   - Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist - Luis Alvarez should get just as much attention as Feynman does IMO!

   - A Matter of Death and Life - the last book I read this year that was touching and made me remember what’s really important in life

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2. PheonixPhartsJan 2024
   The paleontologist Peter Ward has made a fairly compelling argument (in both academic research and the popular science book Under a Green Sky), that virtually all major extinction events are related to sudden rises in atmospheric CO2. A lot more happens when CO2 rises quickly other than it getting warmer. A major issue is it's impact on the oceans, which can become anoxic [0], causing them to emit hydrogen sulfide instead of oxygen. Such an event would be devastating to our current ecosystem.

   > There won't be an extinction event.

   This also ignores the fact that we are currently in the 6th largest extinction event in the history of life on this planet [1]. Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction is a great book on this (and the history of our understanding of species extinction as well).

   So aside for being naive about the science, your comment reads a bit like claiming you don't think it will rain today while in the midst of being soaked in a massive rain storm.

   0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event

   1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

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3. liberabaciJul 2023
   I agree citing scientific sources fortifies an argument, but I would advise you to take anything on Wikipedia as an unreliable source. Wikipedia is not a reputable source unfortunately.

   Here are a few reliable sources you can look into for information about climate science and climate change:

   Websites:

       NASA's Climate Change and Global Warming website (https://climate.nasa.gov/) offers an extensive collection of data, interactive features, and explanatory articles.
       The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (https://www.ipcc.ch/) produces comprehensive reports about climate change.
       The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate.gov (https://www.climate.gov/) provides climate news, data, maps, and more.
   

   Books:

       "The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" by David Wallace-Wells: This book offers an uncompromising look at the potential impacts of climate change if left unchecked.
       "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate" by Naomi Klein: Klein makes a case for how addressing climate change requires major changes to our economic system.
       "Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know" by Joseph Romm: This is a clear, concise primer on the key aspects of climate change.
       "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert:This Pulitzer-winning, discussing the ongoing mass extinction driven by human activity, including climate change.
       "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming" edited by Paul Hawken: This book compiles and evaluates solutions to climate change.
   

   It's worth mentioning that understanding climate science also involves learning about related disciplines like chemistry, physics, and earth sciences, so exploring resources in those areas may be beneficial as well. Good luck!
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4. nr2xJul 2022
   The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert is required reading.

   We’re in the midst of a very rare event, that we caused, are making worse, and we don’t know what will ultimately happen.

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5. brailsafeDec 2021
   The Sixth Extinction
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6. ofouSep 2021
   I think Elizabeth Kolbert with her book "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" did a great job on the overall subject. "Mobile phone and Wi-Fi radiation in particular opens the calcium channels in certain cells, meaning they absorb more calcium ions." That seems not be very good for insects. [1] There are many, good articles coming up. [2] and anecdotal evidence [3] Not sure, of course but the science is unequivocal in that the impact is significant, not negligible.

   [1]: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-mobile-insects-german.html

   [2]: https://sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.pathophys.2009.01.007

   [3]: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.10...

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