Chapter six begins with a small island located in the middle of the Tyrrhenian Sea called Castello Aragonese. Kolbert travels to Castello Aragonese in the winter in order to investigate the carbon dioxide levels of the surrounding waters. Kolbert meets two marine biologists named Jason Hall-Spencer and Maria Cristina Buia. Buia and Hall-Spencer take Kolbert scuba diving and they show her huge green bubbles that were rising from the seafloor. The chapter connects to when the Industrial Revolution began in the early 19th century. This was when human beings burned huge quantities of fossil fuels. This added many billions of metric tones of carbon to the atmosphere. According to Kolbert, she believes that humans should expect that the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere will double that amount it was before the Industrial Revolution. We learn that the average world temperature could increase by as much as seven degrees Fahrenheit. This will cause the world’s glaciers to melt very easily and will dramatically change the marine environment as sea levels rise.
In conclusion, the changes in temperature and sea level could then trigger further changes in the world’s ecosystems. The carbon dioxide-emitting sea vents of the ocean have eroded the shells of many sea creatures, endangering their survival. Another important detail in this chapter is the amount of acidification in the water. Some creatures that were harmed by acidification eventually had to build themselves calcium shells. It is believed that the acidification played a large role in 2 of the 5 great mass extinctions. So, it’ll probably play a major role in the sixth one.
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