Under a White Sky

Book summary

Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and author known for her work in the field of science and environmental writing. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1999 and has written extensively on topics related to climate change, biodiversity, and the environment. Kolbert's writings often delve into the challenges and issues surrounding the impact of human activities on the natural world. One of her notable works is the book titled "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History," published in 2014.

Nature has always been a target of human regulation. In many instances, we've been successful, but in doing so, we've introduced new issues that now pose a threat to the survival of various life forms on our planet. Several of these issues can be fixed with relatively simple interventions like fake caverns and electric fish barriers. Others, however, call for more radical solutions, such as carbon removal, solar geoengineering, and genetic engineering, to mention a few. The potential repercussions of not putting these solutions into practice are just too serious to ignore, even though they may seem dangerous, uncomfortable, or disconcerting.

"It doesn’t much matter whether people care or don’t care. What matters is that people change the world. This capacity predates modernity."

"With the capacity to represent the world in signs and symbols comes the capacity to change it, which, as it happens, is also the capacity to destroy it. "

"The way corals change the world—with huge construction projects spanning multiple generations—might be likened to the way that humans do, with this crucial difference. Instead of displacing other creatures, corals support them."

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