Chapter 1 - Michael Torres

In chapter one, Kolbert walks the reader through her experience learning about an urgent amphibian issue in Panama.  She describes her journey with EVACC, the organization making efforts to preserve the Golden Frog, an endangered species of frog that once thrived in El Valle, Panama.  It turns out that the culprit of the demise of so many of the frogs here and other parts of the world is a fungus called Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd for short).  Here, Kolbert touches on one of the APES themes: Science is a process.  This is because the study of the fungus had changed the way scientists viewed the event of frogs dropping like flies around the globe.  It also contributed to more processes of understanding more about the world and how such a fungus would travel.

Kolbert once again explores the theme of humans altering natural systems by explaining that a likely reason the Bd fungus spread so easily is that it traveled around with humans that can travel around the world very easily.  On page 18-19, Kolbert writes that “...this sort of intercontinental reshuffling, which nowadays we find totally unremarkable, is probably unprecedented in the three-and-a-half-billion-year history of life.” This quote particularly connects to the theme of humans altering natural systems because humans are the only creatures that would provoke such a never-before-seen event that is allowing the same species of frog to travel to different continents.

I have always known about invasive species, but reading this chapter opened my eyes to the fact that the human race takes a lot of responsibility for the creation of the category of invasive species.  It reminds me of a certain water plant that became an invasive species as it stuck with boats that humans rode around the country. Now, that plant is disrupting the food chain of rivers and other bodies of water because it has no natural predator in these areas.  Even though I heard of this water plant many years ago, it especially sticks with me now that I am aware of the potential humans have in impacting the environment around them.