Global warming = mass extinctions - October 25, 2007
Climate change could cause a mass extinction in the near future, UK scientists are warning. Their research found global biodiversity was relatively low during warm greenhouse periods and that in these periods extinctions have been relatively high. Of five previous mass extinctions, four correlated with increased temperatures.
“Our results provide the first clear evidence that global climate may explain substantial variation in the fossil record in a simple and consistent manner,” says Peter Mayhew of the University of York. “If our results hold for current warming — the magnitude of which is comparable with the long-term fluctuations in Earth climate — they suggest that extinctions will increase.”
In fact, if temperatures predicted for the next few centuries do come to pass over 50% of animal and plant species could be put to the climate sword according to the press release, although at a quick glance I can’t find this figure in the paper (abstract, PDF). The story is getting wide coverage, mainly in the UK press (Guardian, BBC, Reuters, Times, Independent, Herald Sun, AP).
It’s worth noting that the mechanism for link is, as the paper notes, “still unclear, and only when they become clearer we will be in a position to comment confidently on the implications for future climate change”. Equally it’s not immediately clear how the relatively long periods of time detailed in the extinctions and warming in this paper relate to our current situation, which some people are already calling a sixth mass extinction, and Charles Petit is asking the question ‘what about the asteroids’.
Comments
There is a micron layer of petroleum oil on all the oceans of this world.
Extinction ? yes extinction of human beings is an almost certainty unless action is/was taken 10 years ago....
Emission theory is rapidly being totally discredited by unfolding observations, much to Big Oil's distress.
Focus on saving life on Earth NOW
Think of the children and forget the bucks.
For a compilation of data and explanations see omegafour.com
Posted by: John Caley | October 27, 2007 11:16 PM
Never mind, supreme God with his protection force army already here :) to protect Mother earth and set things right.
Posted by: ghanesh | November 2, 2007 09:14 AM
One of the more frequently aired commercial breaks on Indian TV, is the one on a new luxury. The punch-line in the ad is ‘Where have all the men gone?’ The question led me to some contemplation, an offshoot from my mental exercises has been this write-up on evolutionary biology – a topic as remote from the thrust of the TV spot as is chalk from cheese – thencefrom , coming to chalk, which is of chemical salt, much like basalt, it sets me musing over a recent new research conducted by scientists from the Princeton University, which has identified the titanic Deccan Plateau upheavals and consequentlava outflows as one of the prime, if not the only, cause for mass extinction of dinosaurs.
The size and period of the basaltic eruptions over south central India, overlaps or gels with the era of mass extinctions of these giants. While the 'meteorite crash' theory lobbyists (both meteor impacts, the Chicxulub of Yucatan and Shiva meteor of India have been implicated as possible extra-terrestrial gatecrashers) look for ‘from the sky above’ answers for mass extinction, the Deccan Plateau upheaval and eruption backers, has espoused the ‘under the earth’ theory.
From remote cosmos or from an earth core, the fact remains, drastic and prolonged climate and atmospheric fluctuations engendered by any or all the above factors, is presumed to have wiped out a majority of life on earth, both floral and faunal – the most and singular and spectacular of the disappearances, being that of the dinosaurs. Although the event(s) ascribed to extinctions were both catastrophic and cataclysmic, was the wipe out of the terrestrial giant populations worldwide, as quick, sudden and immediate as assumed?
In the immediate aftermath of these events, factors that helped wipe out entire species, were intense heat, noxious gases, polluting chemicals, acid rain and increased levels of carbon dioxide.
In the light of data emerging from the field and laboratories on a new, but proven observations on Temperature Variation Dependant Sex Determination - time and again, in reptilia (crocodiles, turtles, agamids) it has been demonstrated that alterations in ambient hatching temperatures on eggs, influences the sex and hormonal levels in early embryos. Is it not inferable that dinosaur clutches of the K-T era, exposed to drastic shifts and variations in ambient atmospheric temperature levels, produced only either all male or all female hatchlings? Could this naturally engendered lop-sided alteration in sex ratio lead to emergence of a unisexual population dinosaurs? In this scenario, within a few generations, one or other sex would have dwindled in numbers or totally wiped out, leading to a chaotic or maybe violent mate hunting, followed by a total eradication of one or the other sex in geographically isolated dinosaur populations the world over.
An animal that ruled like an emperor over land on three continents or more, suddenly finds itself disabled from procreating –millions of years of reign comes to an agonizing and bizarre end. Death of a species, extinction of a form – all because some cosmic or earth core disruption has altered the ambient temperature of the world by a few degrees.
I can imagine a whole host of male T. Rexes desperately searching for a female. Thousands of miles away, in another faraway continent, gasping female Rexes (or should it read Regina's?!) pine as they scour the landscape, muttering “Where have all the men gone?”
Posted by: Prof. Arunachalam Kumar | January 15, 2008 06:38 AM