The most unsettling thing about a mass extinction is that it does not always feel apocalyptic while it is happening. It can begin as scattered local losses — a forest gone quiet, a river emptied, a familiar animal no longer seen — until, much later, the pattern resolves into something planetary.

The most unsettling feature of a mass extinction may be that it does not feel like one from inside it. The five great extinctions in Earth’s history are events we can name only because they are finished, their signatures legible in rock laid down over long stretches of time. Lived day to day, an extinction [...] The post The most unsettling thing about a mass extinction is that it does not always feel apocalyptic while it is happening. It can begin as scattered local losses — a forest gone quiet