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Summary:

More than 200 million years ago, a cataclysm known as the Permian extinction destroyed nearly 97 percent of all living things. Its origins have long been a puzzle. Paleontologist Ward, fresh from helping prove that an asteroid had killed the dinosaurs, turned to the Permian problem, and he has come to a stunning conclusion: that the near-total devastation at the end of the Permian period was caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide leading to climate change. The story of the discovery makes for a globe-spanning adventure. Here, Ward explains how the Permian extinction as well as four others happened, and describes the freakish oceans--belching poisonous gas--and sky--slightly green and always hazy--that would have attended them. Those ancient upheavals demonstrate that the threat of climate change cannot be ignored, lest the world's life today--ourselves included--face the same dire fate.--From publisher description.

Table of Contents:

• Welcome to the revolution!
• The overlooked extinction
• The mother of all extinctions
• The misinterpreted extinction
• A new paradigm for mass extinctions
• The driver of extinction
• Bridging deep past with near past
• The oncoming extinction of winter
• Back to the Eocene.

Author/Creator:

Ward, Peter D. (Peter Douglas), 1949-

Languages:

English

Language Notes:

Item content: English

Main Work:

Under a green sky: global warming, the mass extinctions of the past, and what they mean for our future [by Ward, P.D.]

Subjects:

Extinction (Biology)

Paleoclimatology

Global warming

General Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Physical Description:

xiv, 242 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Call Numbers:

QE721.2.E97 W384 2007

ISBNs:

9780061137914
006113791X

Library of Congress Control Numbers:

2006052250

OCLC Numbers:

964436781
76168082 [Invalid]