Elizabeth Kolbert Books

The opening chapter lays out the scientific foundation: what extinction is, and how it has been identified across Earth’s history. I explain that extinction was once considered improbable—life seemed infinitely renewable—but paleontological evidence overturned that belief. The fossil record revealed...

From The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

In this chapter, I travel back in time to tell the story of how humans discovered extinction as a concept. Before the late eighteenth century, most naturalists believed all species were eternal, existing in harmony with divine creation. Then came Georges Cuvier. In Paris, examining fossilized bones ...

From The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

My journey began along the Mississippi River, a landscape that reveals both the triumph and folly of human engineering. For more than a century, we tried to tame this massive waterway—damming, diverting, and straightening it for navigation and flood control. In doing so, we turned what was once a dy...

From Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

In Nevada, deep within a narrow limestone cavern, lives one of the most endangered creatures on Earth: the Devils Hole pupfish. Barely an inch long, shimmering blue, it survives in a single water-filled fissure that relies on precise conditions—temperature, light, minerals—that have remained stable ...

From Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future