Chapter 1 Jaquan Ellis

         In this chapter, we are introduced to the start of Elizabeth Kolbert’s journey into discovering the potential 6th Mass Extinction. She comes across a children’s magazine where she finds out that a species of golden frogs have been disappearing causing a few people to think it is a signal of a crisis going on. These frogs came from a Panamanian town called El Valle de Antón which is located in a volcanic crater. The scientists in that town are keeping the frogs in custody in their “frog hotel” in order to take care of them and feed them into survival. In the meantime, Kolbert finds another article discussing a potential 6th mass extinction. The article states that there has been a total of 5 of these extinctions and the most recent one was during the Cretaceous period where the dinosaurs have been wiped out. Kolbert was in shock when she heard this news and took a plane to El Valle to begin her research of the 6th mass extinction. She visits the EVACC( the facility keeping the frogs in custody) and meets a man named Edgardo Griffith who has been studying amphibians for years and tells her that not only the golden frogs have been disappearing but the frogs in general. This was all thanks to an unknown fungus called the BD which has been spread throughout Columbia, Australia and New Zealand. This can be connected to the theme of Humans Alter Natural Systems because the spread of the fungus was speculated to be caused by humans. Kolbert and Griffith drive to the rainforest themselves to investigate these frog disappearances and wait around till night due to their nocturnal nature. During that night Griffith came across a blue bellied poison frog ad analyzed him. As he finished observing the creature, they headed back to camp bringing two species. Giffith brought back two tiny blue bellied poison frogs and one whiteish salamander. A quote that seemed interesting was in page 22 when Kolbert said, “ It occurred to me that the frogs and their progeny, if they had any, would never again touch the floor of the rainforest but live out their days in disinfected glass tanks”. This quote was intriguing because it shows how Kolbert is against EVACC’s methods towards helping the animals and raises the question of their ideologies. Does the EVACC actions represent the theme of how humans alter natural systems?