书名：The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History 大灭绝时代：一部反常的自然史
作者：Elizabeth Kolbert伊丽莎白·科尔伯特
出版社名称：Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
出版时间：2015
语种：英文 
ISBN：9781408851241
商品尺寸：13 x 2.2 x 19.9 cm
包装：平装
页数：336 （以实物为准）

我们或许早已知道，地球历史上曾发生五次大灭绝，每一次都给全球生物多样性造成了毁灭性的影响。然而，这些翻天覆地的大灾变到底为什么发生？有无规律可循？与我们人类何干？
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History《大灭绝时代：一部反常的自然史》从居维叶时代开始，娓娓道出数百年来全球科学家对演化历史的上下求索；更重要的是，作者将近年走访四大洲生态聚落的观察所得，穿插结合科学新知与旧闻，为读者画出了今天世界的轮廓：我们的确生活在一个非同凡响的时代，第六次大灭绝早已开始；而推动这一切的可怕角色，正是人类自身
推荐理由：
1.第99届普利策奖新闻奖非虚构写作奖；
2.我们这个时代堪与《寂静的春天》相提并论的重要著作；
3. 全球环保话题之书，比尔·盖茨、阿尔·戈尔推荐；
4. 白宫公布奥巴马度假所带6本书籍之一；
5.《纽约时报》《华盛顿邮报》《经济学人》年度推荐好书；

精彩书评：
“优美的文字，杰出的著作。”——乔恩·斯图尔特，《每日秀》
“力透纸背……科尔伯特追踪了人类对灭绝这一概念堪称跌宕起伏的认知历史，以及我们如何渐渐意识到自己在灭绝事件中扮演的角色……为我们对当今世界的了解做出了无价的巨大贡献。” ——阿尔·戈尔，《纽约时报》书评
“气候变化算是本世纪我们将要面对的大问题之一，但迫在眉睫的环境问题可不止这一个。人类铺下千万条道路，令物种在全球范围内迁移，同时过度捕捞，造成海洋酸化，改变河流的化学组成……如此种种，不胜枚举。自然科学家认为地球历史上曾发生五次灭绝事件（想想那颗毁灭恐龙的小行星），科尔伯特则强有力地指出，人类活动正在引发第六次。和许多谈及环保的作者不同，科尔伯特并不危言耸听，哗众取宠。她只是通过一些令人难忘的奇闻异事，简单地陈列事实。这本书虽然冷静严肃，但读起来相当迷人，信息量很大。”——比尔·盖茨个人博客书评推荐

WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR GENERAL NON-FICTION
A major book about the future of the world, blending natural history, field reporting and the history of ideas and into a powerful account of the mass extinction happening today
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions of life on earth.
Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
Elizabeth Kolbert combines brilliant field reporting, the history of ideas and the work of geologists, botanists and marine biologists to tell the gripping stories of a dozen species—including the Panamanian golden frog and the Sumatran rhino—some already gone, others at the point of vanishing.
The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy and Elizabeth Kolbert’s book urgently compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
Review
“A distinctive and eloquent voice of conscience... In her timely, meticulously researched and well-written book, Kolbert combines scientific analysis and personal narratives to explain it to us. The result is a clear and comprehensive history of earth’s previous mass extinctions... ‘People change the world,’ Kolbert writes, and vividly presents the science and history of the current crisis. Her extensive travels in researching this book, and her insightful treatment of both the history and the science all combine to makeThe Sixth Extinctionan invaluable contribution to our understanding of present circumstances, just as the paradigm shift she calls for is sorely needed.” —Al Gore,The New York Times Book Review

“I tore through Elizabeth Kolbert’sThe Sixth Extinction with a mix of awe and terror. Her long view of extinction excited my joy in life’s diversity—even as she made me aware how many species are currently at risk.” —Dava Sobel, author ofLongitude and A More Perfect Heaven

“Elizabeth Kolbert writes with an aching beauty of the impact of our species on all the other forms of life known in this cold universe. The perspective is at once awe-inspiring, humbling and deeply necessary.” —T.C. Boyle

“Well-composed snapshots of history, theory and observation that will fascinate, enlighten and appal many readers.” —Guardian

《纽约客》记者伊丽莎白·科尔伯特一一亲历全球生态现场，穿插结合三百年科学认知与新锐生态观点，为读者画出了今天世界的轮廓：我们的确生活在一个非同凡响的时代，第六次物种大灭绝已经开始。
The Sixth Extinction《大灭绝时代》故事有十三个。前几个故事所涉及的美洲乳齿象、大海雀还有菊石已经灭绝了，这一部分主要介绍远古的大灭绝及其曲折的发现过程。第二部分陈列当下的事实，在日益支离破碎的亚马孙雨林中，在迅速变暖的安第斯山坡面，在大堡礁的外围海域里。
巨变的范围是如此广大，只要在正确的指引之下，随便去哪里都能发现灭绝的现象。后还有一个故事所讲述的灭绝差不多算是发生在我家后院——说不定，也同时发生在你家。随着故事的推进，读者也能像科学家一样渐渐意识到：当前发生的这一轮大灭绝，源头就在人类自己身上。
From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.
Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.
The Sixth Extinction draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines—geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, and marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. Elizabeth Kolbert, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer, accompanies many of these researchers into the field, and introduces you to a dozen species—some already gone, others facing extinction—that are being affected by the sixth extinction.
Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind’s most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.

伊丽莎白·科尔伯特（Elizabeth Kolbert），美国知名记者、优秀科普作家，《纽约客》环境观察员和评论员。她的写作兼顾科学的严密性与辛辣的幽默感，以观察深刻、逻辑清晰、行文生动著称。曾出版《灾变手记》等文集，其社会责任感与前沿意识备受称道。2014年新作《大灭绝时代》在欧美社会引起热烈反响，受媒体与学界一致好评，被誉为我们这个时代堪与《寂静的春天》相提并论的重要著作。
Elizabeth Kolbert was aNew York Times reporter for fourteen years until she became a staff writer at the New Yorker in 1999. She is the author ofField Notes from a Catastrophe: A Frontline Report on Climate Change. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and children.

Prologue序言
I: The Sixth Extinction第一章第六次大灭绝（巴拿马金蛙）
II: The Mastodon’s Molars第二章乳齿象的臼齿（美洲乳齿象）
III: The Original Penguin第三章最初的企鹅（大海雀）
IV: The Luck of the Ammonites第四章菊石的运气（新泽西盘船菊石）
V: Welcome to the Anthropocene第五章欢迎来到人类世（波纹双鹤笔石）
VI: The Sea Around Us第六章环绕我们的海洋（地中海射线帽贝）
VII: Dropping Acid第七章落酸（多孔鹿角珊瑚）
VIII: The Forest and the Trees第八章森林与树木（轮生双翼果树）
IX: Islands on Dry Land第九章陆上孤岛（鬼针游蚁）
X: The New Pangaea第十章新泛古陆（小棕蝠）
XI: The Rhino Gets an Ultrasound第十一章犀牛做超声（苏门答腊犀）
XII: The Madness Gene第十二章疯狂基因（尼安德特人）
XIII: The Thing with Feathers第十三章长羽毛的东西（智人）
Acknowledgments致谢
Notes注释
Selected Bibliography参考书目
Photo/Illustration Credits图片来源
Index索引

The town ofEl Valle de Antón, in central Panama, sits in the middle of a volcanic crater formed about a million years ago. The crater is six kilometres wide, but when the weather is clear you can see the jagged hills that surround the town like the walls of a ruined tower. El Valle has one main street, a police station, and an open-air market. In addition to the usual assortment of Panama hats and vividly colored embroidery, the market offers what must be the world’s largest selection of golden-frog figurines. There are golden frogs resting on leaves and golden frogs sitting ip on their haunches and—rather more difficult to understand—golden frogs clasping cell phones. There are golden frogs wearing frilly skirts, and golden frogs striking dance poses and golden frogs smoking cigarettes through a holder, after the fashion of FDR. The golden frog, which istaxicabyellow with dark brown splotches, is endemic to the area around El Valle. It is considered a lucky symbol in Panama;its image is(or at least used to be)printed on lottery tickets.
As recently as a decade ago, golden frogs were easy to spot in the hills aroundEl Valle. The frogs are toxic—it’s been calculated that the poison contained in the skin of just one animal could kill a thousand average-sized mice—hence the vivid color, which makes them stand out against the forest floor. One creek not far from El Valle was nicknamed Thousand Frog Stream. A person walking along it would see so many golden frogs sunning themselves on the banks that, as one herpetologist who made the trip many times put it to me, “it was insane—absolutely insane.”
Then the frogs around El Valle started to disappear. The problem—it was not yet perceived as a crisis—was first noticed to the west, near Panama’s border with Costa Rica. An American graduate student happened to be studying frogs in the rainforest there. She went back to the States for a while to write her dissertation, and when she returned, she couldn’t find any frogs or, for that matter, amphibians of any kind. She had no idea what was going on, but since she needed frogs for her research, she set up a new study site, farther east. At first the frogs at the new site seemed healthy; then the same thing happened: the amphibians vanished. The blight spread through the rainforest until, in 2002, the frogs in the hills and streams around the town of Santa Fe, about fifty miles west of El Valle, were effectively wiped out. In 2004, little corpses began showing up even closer to El Valle, around the town of El Copé. By this point, a group of biologists, some from Panama, others from the United States, had concluded that the golden frog was in grave danger. They decided to try to preserve a remnant population by removing a few dozen of each sex from the forest and raising them indoors. But whatever was killing the frogs was moving even faster than the biologists had feared. Before they could act on their plan, the wave hit.