The most absolute, enduring works we can experience are in nature. Endless awe and beauty can be found in the changes of light, the seasons, the moon and stars. We don't need to understand nature to appreciate it. Communing with nature connects us to our own nature. Notice when your breath is taken away by the natural world. Let it enrich your life and set an example for your own creations.

Section: 1, Chapter: 5

Author: Rick Rubin

In the Amazon, intricate ecological relationships have evolved over millennia, with each species adapted to a specific temperature niche. But as the climate warms, these niches are shifting upslope. On the forested slopes of Peru's Manú National Park, research by ecologist Miles Silman reveals that trees are migrating to higher elevations at surprising speeds.

But there's a catch - not all species are moving at the same pace. Certain trees like Schefflera are racing upward, while others like Alzatea are staying put. This variable response means that entire forest communities are unlikely to successfully migrate intact. Instead, ancient ecological relationships are being torn apart, leaving networks of interdependent species vulnerable to collapse.

Section: 1, Chapter: 8

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

Excess CO2 from fossil fuel burning is not just warming the climate - it's also drastically changing ocean chemistry. When CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, lowering the pH. The oceans are now 30% more acidic than in pre-industrial times, and on track to be 150% more acidic by 2100. This acidification makes it harder for calcifying organisms like corals, oysters, and pteropods to build their skeletons and shells. It can even cause shells to dissolve.

Studies at natural CO2 seeps, which act as "windows into the future," show the potentially catastrophic impacts. Reefs near seeps are dominated by weedy algae, with corals and other calcifiers almost entirely absent. Ocean acidification rivals global warming as a threat to marine life, and has been a key driver of several past mass extinctions.

Section: 1, Chapter: 6

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

Darwin recognized some species went extinct suddenly, like the great auk and ammonites. But wedded to Lyell's gradualism, he argued the apparent abruptness merely reflected gaps in the fossil record. Extinctions actually occurred slowly, through competition in the "struggle for existence."

However, as evidence of human-caused extinctions accumulated, a paradox emerged. How could humans overturn the "natural" pace of extinction? It implied either 1) people were unbound by nature's laws, having a "special status," or 2) catastrophic extinctions did occur, meaning Cuvier was right. Darwin sidestepped this problematic conclusion, even as he chronicled human-caused extinctions like the Charles Island tortoise.

Section: 1, Chapter: 3

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

The oceans have absorbed about a third of the CO2 humans have emitted, causing rapid acidification. This process impairs the ability of marine organisms, especially corals, to build their calcium carbonate skeletons and shells. At natural CO2 seeps off the Italian island of Castello Aragonese, the impact is clear. Reefs near the seeps are graveyards, with corals and other calcifiers replaced by seaweed.

As the oceans continue to acidify, entire reef ecosystems could collapse worldwide. Coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef has already declined by 50% in recent decades. Ocean acidification, combined with warming water temperatures, is pushing corals and countless other species toward a bleak future.

Section: 1, Chapter: 7

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

Witnessing the great auk's extinction spurred ornithologist Alfred Newton to action. He realized that many seabird populations were being decimated by hunting, especially during breeding season when the birds were most vulnerable.

Newton argued: "The bird that is shot is a parent. We take advantage of its most sacred instincts to waylay it, and in depriving the parent of life, we doom the helpless offspring to the most miserable of deaths, that by hunger." In response, Newton lobbied for legal protection.

His efforts led to one of the first wildlife protection laws, the Act for the Preservation of Sea Birds in 1869. This underscores the importance of

1. studying species declines,
2. determining the anthropogenic threats, and
3. pushing for policy solutions. Individuals who experience biodiversity loss firsthand can be powerful advocates for conservation.

Section: 1, Chapter: 3

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

The current rate of species extinction is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than the background extinction rate, which is about 0.1 extinctions per million species per year. Amphibians have been hit especially hard, with an extinction rate as much as 45,000 times the background rate. This means we are likely in the midst of the sixth mass extinction in Earth's history, this time primarily caused by human activities. Species are disappearing so fast that biologists feel they are "running through a museum and knowing that the collection's on fire."

Section: 1, Chapter: 1

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

Ammonites, a group of marine mollusks, inhabited the seas for over 300 million years. They survived several mass extinctions, but finally succumbed during the End-Cretaceous event 66 million years ago. Ammonites came in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes, from tiny species to 6-foot giants.

They were abundant, diverse, and highly successful - until they rather abruptly disappeared from the fossil record. Their sudden decline, coinciding with the extinction of the dinosaurs, belies the notion that mass extinctions unfold gradually. Instead, they demonstrate that long-thriving groups can be rapidly eliminated when conditions change faster than they can adapt.

Section: 1, Chapter: 4

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

Charles Darwin was puzzled by how coral reefs, teeming with diverse life, could thrive in the nutrient-poor waters of the tropics. He realized the coral polyps themselves engineer the ecosystem, building calcium carbonate skeletons that provide habitat for millions of other species. Coral reefs demonstrate how certain environments enhance innovation by connecting ideas and making novel combinations possible.

Section: 1, Chapter: 1

Author: Steven Johnson

For centuries, the natural world was defined by the geographic isolation of continents and islands. Distinctive plants and animals evolved in seclusion, cut off from their relatives by oceans and mountain ranges. Darwin saw this as a key driver of speciation.

But human transportation has shattered these barriers. Organisms that could never have spread beyond their native ranges are crossing the planet as stowaways in ship ballast, air cargo, and luggage. The rate of species invasions is skyrocketing, with a new introduced species establishing somewhere in the world every 9 days. These invaders are homogenizing ecosystems, driving natives extinct, and fundamentally rewiring food webs. The result is a New Pangaea, a world where ancient evolutionary divisions no longer apply.

Section: 1, Chapter: 10

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert

"Such is the power of the human enterprise. In a very short time, we have managed to change the composition of the atmosphere and the chemistry of the oceans, and to ravage the biosphere. Having freed ourselves from the constraints of evolution, humans nevertheless remain dependent on the earth's biological and geochemical systems. By disrupting these systems - cutting down tropical rainforests, altering the composition of the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans - we're putting our own survival in danger. ... Right now, in the amazing moment that to us counts as the present, we are deciding, without quite meaning to, which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed. No other creature has ever managed this, and it will, unfortunately, be our most enduring legacy."

Section: 1, Chapter: 13

Author: Elizabeth Kolbert