Chapter 13 (Kwasi Obeng-Dankwa)

In the final chapter, Kolbert travels to San Diego and goes to the Institute for Conservative Research where vials of extinct and close to being extinct are stored. Even though the book has criticized humans in practically every chapter, it expresses the efforts of humans in trying to preserve other species by mentioning the passing of the Endangered Species Act in 1974. She then goes on to talk with Barbra Durrant, a reproductive physiologist. She ends the book on a good note, trying to say that while we are facing biodiversity issues, humans may be able to turn things around and improve the world through our problem-solving.

In the final chapter, I can describe Kolbert as being a someone who started the book as being pessimistic but at the end of the book became more optimistic. She started to mention feeling small and insignificant on Earth but yet realizing all of the damage that humans had caused to it. Instead of leaving on a very morbid note, she remained optimistic. I was not expecting this at all. I was expecting her to have a tone of "That's it. We are all going to die. It's too late to change." I was very surprised by this and think that throughout the book, her faith in humanity actually increased allowing to believe in things working out in the end. This chapter connected with the theme of: Human survival depends on developing practices that will achieve sustainable systems. At the end of the book, Kolbert presents different ideas about humans being able to survive. One of these states "Another possibility... is that human ingenuity will outrun any disaster human ingenuity sets in motion(268)." This is total believe in the ingenuity of humans, as it is believed that no matter what we are tasked with, we will find a way to survive. Another part of the book states "People have to have hope. I have hope. It's what keeps us going." By having hope, the human race may be able to survive as it will allow us to create new ways of doing so, whether it means changing the atmosphere to combat global warming or inhabiting other planets, there is always a possibility for us to survive and I am a believer.