our guest is elizabeth kolbert. new book that was just published today is called, "the sixth extinction: an unnatural history." stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron matÉ. >> we are speaking with elizabeth kolbert, as staff ,"iter with "the new yorker where she recently wrote about new jersey governor chris christie. the scandal continued to unfold monday as a panel investigating the scandal issued 18 more subpoenas from including one for the head of the state's police aviation unit is could offer details about whether kristi shared a helicopter with david wildstein on the same days wildstein oversaw the closures of traffic lanes heading to the george washington bridge for four days in september. a photograph taken on the third day of the lanes closure shows christie walking with wildstein and other close allies at the authority. christie has denied having any knowledge of the closures as they happen saying he only found out wh

please welcome to the program elizabeth kolbert. [cheers and applause] how are you?good, how are you? >> jon: very well, thank you. the book is called "the sixth extinction." there have been five extinction events thus far. >> heretofore, yeah. >> jon: those are what? the fifth and most famous is the extinction that did in the dinosaurs. >> jon: that was an asteroid. >> that was an asteroid. >> jon: and prior to that what had extincted the animal? >> a variety of thingsism tinted -- things extincted the animals. the first is 450 million years ago believed to be caused about a sudden cold snap. >> jon: polar vortex if you will. >> major, major polar vortex. >> jon: the sixth extinction is caused by an invasive species that you write about. that would be us. >> exactly. >> jon: your early description of us reminded me of the asian carp. [ laughter ] >> there are similarities. >> jon: we are introduced to an area and we immediately spread out and make it out our own. >> yeah, we're the world's most successful invasive species. we've gone to every continent. started now

my guest elizabeth kolbert author of sixth extinction about how we as a species doomed ourselves. it's a beach read really. [laughter] wanted to wish good health to young bob costas. he dropped out of tonight's coverage due to a nasty eye infection. i told him, bob, do not wash your face with the water. [ laughter ] but bob is all, i'm eight-time sportscaster of the year bob costas surely my eyes eyes are impervious to russian toxins. look at the poor eye. [ laughter ] he's a good man we're going to help him out. to lift some of the burden from bob's pink, goopy shoulders, here is tonight's "the daily show" olympics moment. ♪ that doesn't seem very sensitive. here we go. can i do this. yesterday -- i can do. this yesterday saw canadian skier alex bilodeau. here is alex in the lead he's catching up so he shot him right there the other guy died and he fell off a cliff. [ laughter ] so ultimately a big victory for the guy who shot the other guy. [laughter] bob, stay and rest those peepers we've got these games covered for you. no problem. [ laughter ] moving on at last month's state

my guest elizabeth kolbert author of sixth extinction about how we as a species doomed ourselves.it's a beach read really. [laughter] wanted to wish good health to young bob costas. he dropped out of tonight's coverage due to a nasty eye infection. i told him, bob, do not wash your face with the water. [ laughter ] but bob is all, i'm eight-time sportscaster of the year b

with us now is elizabeth kolbert who says a future extinction. y between the clip that we just saw and the present extinction is that we are also a force of changing the world very quickly and when i say "we," i mean, people. and what we -- what one of the defining characters of this sort of event where you do get a big extinction event is you lose creatures across all different groups. for example, mr. corals are threatened and many large animals are threatened. rhinos and apes and animals people are familiar with and we are losing organisms. >> you are sugaring it isuggest because of what we are doing? >> the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago which there is a pretty broad scientific consensus was caused by an asteroid impact and that crater produced by going to the earth is off the gulf of mexico. now you will hear scientists say i have heard scientists say that we are the asteroid because of these very radical ways that we are changing the planet. for example, we are changing the atmosphere, we are reporting a lot of carbon monox

. >> elizabeth kolbert, very fascinating. thank you so much for coming in. hope you'll come back when we talk more about this issue. >>> in politics, prepare to explore the deeply complicated relationships between a former u.s. president and fellow world leaders, not through top secret documents that have been sealed away somewhere, but at an art exhibit being hosted this spring by former president george w. bush. bush, as you may know, took a painting in 2009. the artist in chief will be displaying some of his never-before-seen paintings this april at an exhibit called the art of leadership, a president's personal diplomacy. the ex hib bit captures how bush ds relationship with world leaders helped to shape global policies during his presidency. >>> as if learning that her phone was tapped was not bad enough, angela merkel has the distinct honor of trending on twitter a hitler mustache this photo was snabed and the photographer happened to take the picture just as netanyahu lifted his finger, casting a rather unfortunate shadow across the lip. it did not ta