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'Great Dying': Rapid Warming Caused Largest Extinction Event Ever, Report Says (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event in the Earth's history, which wiped out the vast majority of marine and terrestrial animals on the planet, scientists have found. The mass extinction, known as the "great dying," occurred around 252m years ago and marked the end of the Permian geologic period. The study of sediments and fossilized creatures show the event was the single greatest calamity ever to befall life on Earth, eclipsing even the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago. Up to 96% of all marine species perished while more than two-thirds of terrestrial species disappeared. The cataclysm was so severe it wiped out most of the planet's trees, insects, plants, lizards and even microbes.
The researchers used paleoceanographic records and built a model to analyze changes in animal metabolism, ocean and climate conditions. When they used the model to mimic conditions at the end of the Permian period, they found it matched the extinction records. According to the study, this suggests that marine animals essentially suffocated as warming waters lacked the oxygen required for survival. The great dying event, which occurred over an uncertain timeframe of possibly hundreds of years, saw Earth's temperatures increase by around 10C (18F). Oceans lost around 80% of their oxygen, with parts of the seafloor becoming completely oxygen-free. Scientists believe this warming was caused by a huge spike in greenhouse gas emissions, potentially caused by volcanic activity.
The researchers used paleoceanographic records and built a model to analyze changes in animal metabolism, ocean and climate conditions. When they used the model to mimic conditions at the end of the Permian period, they found it matched the extinction records. According to the study, this suggests that marine animals essentially suffocated as warming waters lacked the oxygen required for survival. The great dying event, which occurred over an uncertain timeframe of possibly hundreds of years, saw Earth's temperatures increase by around 10C (18F). Oceans lost around 80% of their oxygen, with parts of the seafloor becoming completely oxygen-free. Scientists believe this warming was caused by a huge spike in greenhouse gas emissions, potentially caused by volcanic activity.
Carbon, amazingly, doesn't care where it comes from.
And yes there are other sources. In the case of the Great Dying, a giant asteroid slammed into Siberia turning it into a gigantic lava bed.
See any 13 million square kilometre lava beds recently? Or giant asteroid strikes?
No?
Then the lesson you learn is that rapid climate change is deadly because it is rapid. The fact that temperatures have been more extreme than during that time doesn't matter.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Yep, all them models of quantum mechanics we use to build computer chips? Complete bollocks. Those models we use to build bridges and skyscrapers to figure out the loads and stress, utter garbage since they are always falling down...hmmmm...not yet, you say? Given enough time, they will and show your model theory is correct. You should tell the scientists about this, I'm sure they'd listen to you.
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No, it means we should act smarter than rocks. Are we men, or are we menhirs?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
So rapid warming has happened before?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I used to have a policy to go to a good restaurant for agood steak and bottle of red every time a spike in alarmist reports hit.
It is strange the things that some folks consider alarmist. This is merely a conjunction of physics, geology, chemistry and a few other sciences. Odd that people such as yourself find it alarmist, while people like myself find it enjoyable, like fitting together pieces of a jigsaw puzzle as the different disciplines intertwine.
Not to mention, we wouldn't be here if it hadn't happened
Relax and enjoy that bottle of red, You don't need any reason other than being here.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Yes, I am going to keep posting this until you knot-heads get it.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
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Let's face the sad, dirty little fact: the 'average person' is not very smart, and can't really think very far in the future, either. The science of most things is so far over their heads, that they'd sooner believe they're being swindled out of something.
Short story: I used to know a guy who told me once that he thought he could put a bunch of little electric generators with propellers mounted on them on the hood of his car, and get 'free energy', that he'd somehow route to a motor that would improve his gas mileage. No matter how I tried to explain it to him, he just plain would not believe that the losses would far exceed the gains, and that the added air resistance would actually make his fuel economy worse. He literally believed something like this troll image was real. Nothing would persuade him differently.
The above story is more-or-less the Average Person when it comes to science. What's worse: take the average person and add religion? It's even worse, they not only believe most science is bullshit intended to trick them, they believe science is EVIL and Satanic and they're trying to mislead them away from their God. That's the sort of icecream-headache-causing nonsense we're fighting against here.
Then you think incorrectly. Tectonics is not like shuffling a deck of cards, it doesn't jumble everything. Besides, you'll have to explain how the gold got *back* into veins in rocks, lode deposits, etc.