Mass Extinctions and Their Relationship With Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentration: Implications for Earth's Future
Journal: Earth s Future
Year: 2023

Abstract Industrialization has raised the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in Earth's atmosphere by half since 1770, posing a risk from ocean acidification to global biodiversity, including phytoplankton that synthesize approximately (∼) 50% of planetary oxygen. This risk is estimated here from the fossil record and implications for our energy and economic future are explored. Over the last 534 million years (Myr), 50 extinction events present as peaks of genus loss‐and‐recovery cycles, e