I’ve been reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction bit by bit for the last few weeks, but I realized today as I sat down to read the last couple of chapters that I’ve never included it in a Yarn Along photo. This is a book of interconnected essays about the environmental consequences of the fact that we have recently entered the Anthropocene – the geological age in which the primary change agent is Homo sapiens. I loved the first few essays, which deal with humankind’s slow process of coming to terms with the concept of extinction. A French scientist named Cuvier was the first to claim in writing that many species that had once lived on the earth were now extinct. Cuvier’s theory was published a generation or so before Darwin’s theory of evolution, and like Darwin’s, Cuvier’s faced a lot of criticism from orthodox scientists who maintained that the earth had been created in a sort of homeostasis and had never deviated from that point. It was amusing to read about the lengths 19th-century thinkers (including, of all people, Thomas Jefferson – as if he didn’t already have enough to do) went to explain away the huge mammoth femurs and fossilized T-Rex teeth that were being pulled out of graphite mines right and left during that era. But then the middle of the book was about trees and coral reefs and microscopic doo-hickeys and such, and while I know that these organisms are essential to the biodiversity of the earth, they interest me less than silly 19th-century scientists. So I put the book down for a while but became newly absorbed in it yesterday by the promise, according to the table of contents, that Neanderthals are coming soon. And what’s not to like about Neanderthals?
I’m still working on my orange scarf, and it’s still fun.
Yarn Along is hosted by Ginny on her blog, Small Things.
Postcards From Purgatory 
Really like your scarf – especially that color orange!
I was never a fan of the color until I started knitting….
Linda in VA
Yes, so true! Sometimes I think the main reason I knit is because of how much I love the colors and textures of yarn.
I have realized that I like to piece quilts because it is like coloring without crayons.
Quilting = old-school adult coloring books?
A few years ago, an artist friend visited my apartment in Massachusetts and said, “You have such a great eye for color and texture.” That had never been something I thought about myself, and I was surprised, but her comment opened my eyes to what I had been doing intuitively: cushions and afghans everywhere, scarves hanging from the backs of doors, a mishmash of kitchen towels – and, of course, the big pile of knitting.
Maybe it’s the fact that we can modify our behavior not to survive but for ethical/moral reasons…
Beautiful color and texture! Very pleasing to the eye! 🙂
Thanks — I love it too!
This sounds right up my alley. Thanks for posting your review!
You’re welcome. I’ll post a more complete review in a couple of days.
This sounds like a really interesting book; I’ll have to see if I can find a copy.
It should be pretty widely available. It won the Pulitzer last year. I hope you enjoy it!
I love the color you are working with!
Thanks! I love it too.
What an interesting book! It sounds like something I would like. And I LOVE the orange scarf – very pretty!
Thanks! And yes, the book is great and very layperson-friendly.