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.
Publisher: Smithsonian Books; Collins Publishers; HarperCollins; Smithsonian Books/Collins
Published: 2007
Place of publication: United States
Language: eng
Number of pages: 241
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.