Fast increases in CO2 concentrations in the past have been associated with massive global warming and rises in ocean acidity, leading to extinctions, unlike the slower orbital events associated with the ice ages. We must reduce CO2 emissions or die. ....................... The Permian Extinction (The Great Dying, wiping out about 90% of all species alive and lasting for 10,000,000 years) was triggered off by massive CO2 emissions in a brief period of only 2-18 thousand years, our understanding is that it is shorter by two orders of magnitude, closer to the human ballpark. (1) It is likely to have been caused by massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia setting off a massive rise in ocean acidity, and global warming from Volcanic CO2, burning coal (2) and geothermal baked methane emissions. (3) Unlike the slow, orbitally induced, glacial interglacial cycles, these faster carbon eruptions, the extinction events such as the Permian, and our own extinction event that we are causing, cannot be buffered by the deep ocean cooling reservoirs and carbonate rocks as they happened too quickly. Life cannot adapt in such a short time to the changes in climate and ocean acidity. (4) The only choice we have is to rapidly transition to a lower and then zero emissions economy, or face a similar future, where the equatorial latitudes were too hot for complex life to survive (5) Appreciation to Howard Lee for his concepts and references. (6) 1) pnas.org/content/111/9/3316.abstract 2) nature/ngeo/journal/v4/n2/full/ngeo1069.html Here we present analyses of terrestrial carbon in marine sediments that suggest a substantial amount of char was deposited in Permian aged rocks from the Canadian High Arctic immediately before the mass extinction. Based on the geochemistry and petrology of the char, we propose that the char was derived from the combustion of Siberian coal and organic-rich sediments by flood basalts, which was then dispersed globally. The char is remarkably similar to modern coal fly ash, which can create toxic aquatic conditions when released as slurries. We therefore speculate that the global distribution of ash could have created toxic marine conditions. 3)sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0012821X08007292 Basin scale gas production potential estimates show that metamorphism of organic matter and petroleum could have generated > 100,000 Gt CO2 (4)sciencedirect/science/article/pii/S0025322705000575 5) sciencemag.org/content/338/6105/366.abstract Global warming is widely regarded to have played a contributing role in numerous past biotic crises. Here, we show that the end-Permian mass extinction coincided with a rapid temperature rise to exceptionally high values in the Early Triassic that were inimical to life in equatorial latitudes and suppressed ecosystem recovery. 6) skepticalscience/Lee-commentary-on-Burgess-et-al-PNAS-Permian-Dating.html
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 04:37:09 +0000
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