Under a green sky
Subtitle: global warming, the mass extinctions of the past, and what they can tell us about our future
By: Peter D. Ward
Edition: 1st Smithsonian books ed.
Publisher: Smithsonian Books/Collins
Published: 2007
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 242
ISBN-13: 9780739490433
Subjects: Paleoclimatology; Extinction (Biology); Global warming
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Welcome to the revolution!; title: The overlooked extinction; title: The mother of all extinctions; title: The misinterpreted extinction; title: A new paradigm for mass extinctions; title: The driver of extinction; title: Bridging deep past with near past; title: The oncoming extinction of winter; title: Back to the Eocene; title: The new old world.