New Book Looks at Humanity's Role in the Next Extinction

Another book I want to read! I'm a glutton for depressing punishment!

Nevertheless the subject of eradicated species has become publishing hot property after a bidding battle in the US saw Henry Holt, a publisher, beat its rivals to buy The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert last week. According to the New York Times, a "mid-six-figure advance" has now been agreed between writer and publisher.

"The idea of mass extinctions as the next step after talking about the perils of global warming is the most crucial subject," said Gillian Blake of Holt, after completing the deal with Kolbert, a writer for the New Yorker on environmental issues. Her last book, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, outlined evidence collated from sites across the planet showing how global warming is changing the world. The book was well reviewed on both sides of the Atlantic, with the Observer praising it as "a superbly crafted, diligently compressed vision of a world spiralling towards destruction".

Now, Kolbert is to focus on humanity's impact on the animal world, and in particular will look at the species that are today being rendered extinct by men and women. Scientists say the number of species being lost is approaching levels reached during five pivotal extinction events that have swept the planet over the past 600 million years. Among these catastrophes was the event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Kolbert's task will to be show whether or not humanity – with its spiralling population, widespread habitat destruction, over-fishing and global warming – is rivalling these.

"Thin Green Line" Surveys Wildlife Crime in UK

Here's another book I'll need to add to my list.

Animal Cruelty and Richard Russo

Has anyone ever read Richard Russo's book "Straight Man?" He uses geese killing at a fictional university as a comedic subplot. I've googled this and can't find a single critique of the book that mentions that he is making a joke out of animal cruelty.

It's not funny at all. Why wasn't it noted by someone somewhere?

Becoming Sensitized to Animals in Books

I read a lot. A whole lot. Over the years, I've noticed that the role of animals jumps out at me in any book I read. It may be just a couple of pages or even a couple of sentences, but it's enough to make a lasting impression.

Here is one example. I read "Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World." It's a book by Tracy Kidder about Dr. Paul Farmer, an international health advocate who made his name from his work in Haiti and his fight against Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR). While his work is amazing, I personally believe he has a real martyr complex and a huge ego that is carefully hidden in the book, but that's another issue.

There were various brief descriptions of the poor animals of Haiti. How thin the donkeys were and how their backs were ravaged from the loads they carried. The cockfights that are so popular in Haiti. These brief descriptions are less than 1 percent of the book, but they meant something to me because I've become sensitized to them.

There was one story that took up less than one page that is the animal legacy of the book to me. When Paul Farmer was a medical student, he had to do a vivisection. He was disturbed by it. He had to take a life to save humans. He was staying with a Catholic priest who talked to him all night about it. The next morning the priest made a joke of the whole thing by waking Farmer up the next morning by pretending to be a dog and scratching at Farmer's door.

I thought that was a truly vile thing to have occurred. It wasn't funny and I was disappointed that the writer made no statement about that. It's stuck in my mind and tainted the book. But I wonder how many other readers would remember it, unless they are especially aware and concerned about animals themselves.

How to Confront Cruelty

I came across this 2005 book from the Society & Animals Journal titled Confronting Cruelty Moral Orthodoxy and the Challenge of the Animal Rights Movement.

Sounds interesting.

Why and how do people campaign on behalf of a species that is not their own? Responses to this question provide important insights into the much misunderstood animal rights movement and the people in it who challenge the moral orthodoxy that underpins our attitudes towards nonhuman animals. The norm of moderate concern for animals - that animals matter albeit less than humans - permits the (ab)use of animals in vivisection, factory farming, bloodsports and other contexts where animals suffer.

Readership: This book will be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the animal rights movement in England, the United States and Australia. It would also be useful to students of sociology and politics in general, and social movements
in particular