Kolbert begins the book with an epigraph from E.O. Wilson that reads ...In the instant of achieving self-understanding in the mind of man, life has doomed its most beautiful creation.* What qualities do humans possess that have caused and still cause extinctions —even of our close Neanderthal 'relatives* — but may finally serve the cause of preservation? What are scientists and others doing to stem mass extinctions of non-human species? Are these efforts sufficient? Base your paper on the text of The Sixth Extinction.