Chapter 6 - Michael Torres

In Chapter 6, Kolbert travels to an island called Castello Aragonese to investigate the carbon dioxide levels in the water in the area.  She finds that there is barely any life near the vents on the ocean floor where carbon dioxide is being emitted. This connects to Chapter 5 because carbon dioxide was involved in the mass extinction of many of the animals at the end of the Ordovician Era.  So in this chapter, Kolbert takes a closer look at the effects of carbon dioxide on the natural system.  This connects to the APES theme that natural systems change over time and space because before the island was formed there was most likely less carbon dioxide emission, thus, a different natural system was in place.

Kolbert involves humans into the chapter by describing the ways that they contributed to the mass amount of CO2 in the world through the process of cutting trees and burning fossil fuels.  Kolbert sees the effects first hand when she notices a starfish with a missing arm. This connects to the theme of humans altering natural systems once again. Kolbert writes on page 114 that “since the start of the industrial revolution, humans have burned through enough fossil fuels… to add some 365 billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere. Deforestation contributed another 180 billion tons, Each year, we throw up another nine billion tons.”  These numbers show that humans take a vast majority of the responsibility for the accumulating amount of carbon dioxide that is putting the earth’s inhabitants in danger which is more drastic than simply altering the planet’s natural systems.