Extinction in the Anthropocene: A critical analysis

Anthropogenic species extinction is considered one of the planet's most pressing environmental issues, receiving widespread attention across academic and public realms. Accelerating species loss, including the idea that humans are causing the sixth mass extinction, is deemed emblematic of human impacts upon the natural world and a key signature of the Anthropocene epoch.

Although thousands of articles and books exist about extinction, it is rare to encounter a deep, reflexive account of what it is, what it is not, what it means to go extinct, and the ontological, societal, and existential implications of the current episode for humans. To flesh out these lesser explored aspects, this thesis places various facets of extinction in dialogue with each other, including scientific, anthropological, philosophical, and historical elements. I examine the scientific claim that humans have initiated another mass extinction event; the cultural history of its emergence, and how it has become a crystallising concept bringing together broader fears about the state of the planet; anthropological aspects, including the extent to which anxieties about the environmental crisis manifest as ontological concerns about the end of the world; and I explore the potential for re-imagining the extinction crisis in a way that does not simply reduce the future to loss. My primary aim is to foster a more effective cross-fertilisation and exchange of ideas between the social and natural sciences, developing better thinking, questions, and approaches toward this vexing issue. The research is undertaken via a comprehensive literature review across numerous disciplines.

My findings confirm that the sixth extinction is a speculative label unsupported by empirical science and also an inappropriate model to discuss anthropogenic species loss because of the macro-evolutionary benefits of prior mass extinctions. I also reveal that ideas about extinction have dramatically transformed over the past two centuries, driven by science but influenced by broader cultural issues. I determine that the sixth extinction and the Anthropocene constitute a crisis of modernity, the threat to which is equated with the end of the world and the biological disappearance of humans. And irrespective of whether humans are causing the sixth extinction, we are perhaps setting the stage for the 'sixth genesis' of diversity millions of years hence, when our activities could lead to unprecedented species richness.

In conclusion, I argue that extinction is a profoundly temporal and ethical phenomenon. Depending upon the prism one views the current extinction episode, it can be seen and interpreted differently. A near-time perspective confirms we are causing a 'biological annihilation' of many lifeforms, but the long-term view is that the planet is experiencing just another crisis in the history of life, and whatever humans do in the short-term will be subsumed into the deeper patterns of natural history. This suggests that concerning ourselves with the well-being of other species, beyond their value as material and cultural resources, is an issue of intraspecies ethics, involving humans 'holding open space' in the world for our non-human companions so they may diversify and resonate into the future.