---
title: "3 Extinctions Quotes By Elizabeth Kolbert"
description: "3 Extinctions quotes by Elizabeth Kolbert. Plus more from Elizabeth Kolbert and more Extinctions sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/963/elizabeth-kolbert-7570_extinction_in-ordinary-times-times-here-understood_834494.png"
---

> [“In ordinary times—times here understood to mean whole geologic epochs—extinction takes place only very rarely, more rarely even than speciation, and it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/in-ordinary-times-times-here-understood-to-mean-whole-geologic-epochs/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/963/elizabeth-kolbert-7570_extinction_in-ordinary-times-times-here-understood_834494.png)

> [“background extinction.” In ordinary times—times here understood to mean whole geologic epochs—extinction takes place only very rarely, more rarely even than speciation,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/background-extinction-in-ordinary-times-times-here-understood-to-mean/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/41e/elizabeth-kolbert-7570_extinction_background-extinction-in-ordinary-times_2675651.jpg)

> [“Another expert, David Jablonski, characterizes mass extinctions as “substantial biodiversity losses” that occur rapidly and are “global in extent.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/another-expert-david-jablonski-characterizes-mass-extinctions-as/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/557/elizabeth-kolbert-7570_extinction_another-expert-david-jablonski-character_3196812.jpg)

## Other authors on Extinctions

## More by Elizabeth Kolbert

> [“The size of the greenhouse forcing is estimated, at this point, to be 2.5 w/m2. A miniature Christmas light gives off about four tenths…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/the-size-of-the-greenhouse-forcing-is-estimated-at-this-point-to-be-2/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [You've got to do everything, everything's got to be pointing in the same direction and you've got to really turn this whole economic engine…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/you-ve-got-to-do-everything-everything-s-got-to-be-pointing-in-the/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [Well in the scientific there is virtually no debate over certain things. For example, that we are changing the world. Humans are changing the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/well-in-the-scientific-there-is-virtually-no-debate-over-certain/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [Humans will eventually become extinct. People treat that as a radical thing to say. But the fossil record shows us that everything eventually becomes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/humans-will-eventually-become-extinct-people-treat-that-as-a-radical/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“A sign in the Hall of Biodiversity offers a quote from the Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich: IN PUSHING OTHER SPECIES TO EXTINCTION, HUMANITY IS…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/a-sign-in-the-hall-of-biodiversity-offers-a-quote-from-the-stanford/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [We have all this Paleolithic art that suggests that our ancestors really venerated animals and that they depended on wild animals to survive -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/we-have-all-this-paleolithic-art-that-suggests-that-our-ancestors/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“Crutzen wrote up his idea in a short essay, “Geology of Mankind,” that ran in Nature. “It seems appropriate to assign the term ‘Anthropocene’…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/crutzen-wrote-up-his-idea-in-a-short-essay-geology-of-mankind-that/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“Modern humans arrived in Europe around forty thousand years ago, and again and again, the archaeological record shows, as soon as they made their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/modern-humans-arrived-in-europe-around-forty-thousand-years-ago-and/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [It seems that the Neanderthal DNA that modern Europeans and Asians (and also Native Americans and basically all non-African people) are carrying around is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/it-seems-that-the-neanderthal-dna-that-modern-europeans-and-asians/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [What are the Chinese doing, what are we doing, what are - so we need, both the developed world and the developing world, really…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/what-are-the-chinese-doing-what-are-we-doing-what-are-so-we-need-both/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“As the effects of global warming become more and more difficult to ignore, will we react by finally fashioning a global response? Or will…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/as-the-effects-of-global-warming-become-more-and-more-difficult-to/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [As best as can be determined, the world is now warmer than it has been at any point in the last two millennia, and,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/as-best-as-can-be-determined-the-world-is-now-warmer-than-it-has-been/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [I traveled really to amazing places. I went to the Great Barrier Reef, I went to the Amazon, I went to the Andes, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/i-traveled-really-to-amazing-places-i-went-to-the-great-barrier-reef/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“At the Biesbosch nature center, I met up with a water-ministry official named Eelke Turkstra. Turkstra runs a program called Ruimte voor de Rivier…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/at-the-biesbosch-nature-center-i-met-up-with-a-water-ministry/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

> [“Darwin’s familiarity with human-caused extinction is also clear from On the Origin of Species. In one of the many passages in which he heaps…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-kolbert/darwin-s-familiarity-with-human-caused-extinction-is-also-clear-from/)

[Elizabeth Kolbert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-kolbert/)

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