The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Geoscience 5 (2012): 86–89.
the seas warmed: Timothy Kearsey et al., “Isotope Excursions and Palaeotemperature
Estimates from the Permian/Triassic Boundary in the Southern Alps (Italy),” Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 279 (2009): 29–40.
the whole episode lasted: Shu-zhong Shen et al., “Calibrating the End-Permian Mass
Extinction,” Science 334 (2011): 1367–72.
One hypothesis has it: Lee R. Kump, Alexander Pavlov, and Michael A. Arthur, “Massive
Release of Hydrogen Sulfide to the Surface Ocean and Atmosphere during Intervals of Oceanic
Anoxia,” Geology 33 (2005): 397–400.
“truly grotesque place”: Carl Zimmer, introduction to paperback edition of T. Rex and the
Crater of Doom (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2008), xv.
not much thicker than a cigarette paper: Jan Zalasiewicz, The Earth After Us: What Legacy
Will Humans Leave in the Rocks? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 89.
“We have already left a record”: Ibid., 240.
“a grey tide”: Quoted in William Stolzenburg, Rat Island: Predators in Paradise and the World’s
Greatest Wildlife Rescue (New York: Bloomsbury, 2011), 21.
A recent study of pollen: Terry L. Hunt, “Rethinking Easter Island’s Ecological Catastrophe,”
Journal of Archaeological Science 34 (2007): 485–502.
“a species or two of large naked rodent”: Zalasiewicz, The Earth After Us, 9.
“Because of these anthropogenic emissions”: Paul J. Crutzen, “Geology of Mankind,” Nature
415 (2002): 23.
“as future evolution”: Jan Zalasiewicz et al., “Are We Now Living in the Anthropocene?” GSA
Today 18 (2008): 6.
CHAPTER VI: THE SEA AROUND US
the tally they came up with was very different: Jason M. Hall-Spencer et al., “Volcanic
Carbon Dioxide Vents Show Ecosystem Effects of Ocean Acidification,” Nature 454 (2008): 96–99.
Details from supplementary tables.
in one mesocosm experiment: Ulf Reibesell, personal communication, Aug. 6, 2012.
There’s strong evidence: Wolfgang Kiessling and Carl Simpson, “On the Potential for Ocean
Acidification to Be a General Cause of Ancient Reef Crises,” Global Change Biology 17 (2011): 56–67.
It’s been estimated that calcification evolved: Andrew H. Knoll, “Biomineralization and
Evolutionary History,” Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 54 (2003): 329–56.
three-quarters of the missing: Hall-Spencer et al., “Volcanic Carbon Dioxide Vents Show
Ecosystem Effects of Ocean Acidification,” Nature 454 (2008): 96–99.
This comes to a stunning: For up-to-date figures on atmospheric emissions and ocean
uptake of carbon dioxide, thanks to Chris Sabine of NOAA’s PMEL Carbon Program.
“Time is the essential ingredient”: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 40th anniversary ed.