Rhetorical Analysis Of The Sixth Extinction

It is often difficult to convince people that there is an issue present which requires their attention. Infinitely more difficult is convincing them that they are to blame for the issue or problem at hand. Nevertheless, this was the task that faced Elizabth Kolbert as she wrote The Sixth Extinction. In cases like this, writers often have to use various rhetorical strategies and techniques just to reach their audience. Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction is a perfect example of just how writers use powerful tools to connect with their readers. In The Sixth Extinction Kolbert’s tool of choice was narration. In essence, Kolbert uses narration to engage and connect with her audience and better convey her arguments and ideas in a manner that is easily understood.
Kolbert’s central argument, though complex, can be boiled down to two key ideas. The first is that we are living in a geologic era known as the Anthropocene, a time frame characterized by humanity’s effect on the Earth. In other words, humans, as a species, have been impacting the world in an unprecedented manner and on a scale that has never been seen before.

She then proceeds to introduce the idea of a global mass extinction and explains that in all of history, such an event has only occurred five times. The rate of the frogs’ disappearances, however, is alarmingly similar to a mass extinction and Kolbert presents “the notion that a sixth such event would be taking place right now” (Kolbert 11). Rather than simply telling us that a global mass extinction is occurring, Kolbert uses the idea of a mass amphibian extinction in the Americas to introduce it. This makes the audience more likely to agree with Kolbert as the story she told seems to be proof of what she is claiming. In addition, the example of the frogs shows the audience that the sixth extinction is a real and present