Ep 513 | Original Air Date April 22, 2019

The fossil record of planet earth tells us that there have been five mass extinctions—the most famous being the fifth that destroyed the dinosaurs. Elizabeth Kolbert warns that we’re in the midst, now, of the sixth extinction and its cause is human activity.

Kolbert’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Sixth Extinction, documents the risk to species across the planet. The threat is human activity.  The fabric of life has been altered largely in part by poaching, over-fishing, and deforestation—among other human activities. The resulting loss in biodiversity is reshaping life on Earth.

Kolbert was the recipient of the 2019 Pell Center Prize for Story in the Public Square, presented at a ceremony on the Salve Regina University campus earlier this spring. 

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