{"id":31443,"date":"2022-07-31T19:08:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T19:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/new-study-offers-a-surprising-timeline-for-earths-sixth-mass-extinction\/"},"modified":"2022-07-31T19:08:42","modified_gmt":"2022-07-31T19:08:42","slug":"new-study-offers-a-surprising-timeline-for-earths-sixth-mass-extinction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/new-study-offers-a-surprising-timeline-for-earths-sixth-mass-extinction\/","title":{"rendered":"New Study Offers a Surprising Timeline For Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A climate scientist at Tohoku University in Japan has run the numbers and does not think today’s mass extinction event will equal that of the previous five. At least not for many more centuries to come.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

On more than one occasion over the past 540 million years, Earth has lost most of its species in a relatively short geologic time span.<\/p>\n

These are known as mass extinction events, and they often follow closely on the heels of climate change, whether it be from extreme warming or extreme cooling, triggered by asteroids or volcanic activity.<\/p>\n

When Kunio Kaiho tried to quantify the stability of Earth’s average surface temperature and the planet’s biodiversity, he found a largely linear effect. The greater the temperature change, the greater the extent of extinction.<\/p>\n

For global cooling events, the greatest mass extinctions occurred when temperatures fell by about 7\u00b0C. But for global warming events, Kaiho found the greatest mass extinctions occurred at roughly 9\u00b0C warming.<\/p>\n

That’s much higher than previous estimates, which suggest a temperature of 5.2\u00b0C would result in a major marine massion, on par with the previous ‘big five’.<\/p>\n

To put that in perspective, by the end of the century, modern global warming is on track to increased surface temperatures by as much as 4.4\u00b0C. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

“The 9\u00b0C global warming will not appear in the Anthropocene at least till 2500 under the worst scenario,” Kaiho predicts.<\/p>\n

Kaiho is not denying that many extinctions on land and in the sea are already occurring because of climate change; he just does not expect the same proportion of losses as before.<\/p>\n

Still, it’s not just the degree of climate change that puts species at risk. The speed at which it occurs is vitally important.<\/p>\n

The largest mass extinction event on Earth killed off 95 percent of known species at the time and occurred over 60,000 years about 250 million years ago. But today’s warming is occurring on a much shorter timescale thanks to human emissions of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more species will die off in Earth’s sixth extinction event not because the magnitude of warming is so great, but because the changes happened so quickly that many species could not adapt.<\/p>\n

“Prediction of the future anthropogenic extinction magnitude using only surface temperature is difficult because the causes of the anthropogenic extinction differ from causes of mass extinctions in geologic time,” Kaihu admits. <\/p>\n

Whichever way scientists slice up the data, it’s clear that many species are doomed unless we can halt climate change.<\/p>\n

The exact percentage of losses and the timing of those losses remains up for debate.<\/p>\n

The study was published in biogeosciences<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A climate scientist at Tohoku University in Japan has run the numbers and does not think today’s mass extinction event will equal that of the previous five. At least not for many more centuries to come. On more than one occasion over the past 540 million years, Earth has lost most of its species in …<\/p>\n

New Study Offers a Surprising Timeline For Earth’s Sixth Mass Extinction<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[13532,8971,13538,2527,13529,13531,13533,13535,13534,13528,13536,13539,13537,8285,13530],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36373,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/personal-behavior-even-taylor-swifts-is-a-minor-part-of-climate-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":31443,"position":0},"title":"Personal behavior \u2014 even Taylor Swift’s \u2014 is a minor part of climate change","date":"August 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Celebrities would be doing the Earth a favor if they cut back on private jets, but combating global warming will require bigger systemic changes, not just better personal behavior.Driving the news: A recent report from Yard, a UK marketing firm, found that Taylor Swift's flying habits put her atop the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42296,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/metallica-mariah-carey-headline-global-citizen-nyc-concert\/","url_meta":{"origin":31443,"position":1},"title":"Metallica, Mariah Carey headline Global Citizen NYC concert","date":"August 11, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Get ready to rock out for a good cause, New Yorkers. The Global Citizens Festival returns to Central Park next month with a star-studded lineup to celebrate its 10th anniversary, marking a decade of the nonprofit's annual event aimed at fighting extreme poverty. The trifecta of headliners this year is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"Nick Jonas, from left, Joe Jonas and Kevin Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, perform a medley at the Billboard Music Awards on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. (Photo by Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/08\/jobros2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20572,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/valve-clarifies-safe-temperatures-for-steam-deck-amid-heatwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":31443,"position":2},"title":"Valve Clarifies Safe Temperatures For Steam Deck Amid Heatwave","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Praise the sun, but stay the hell out of the heat with your expensive gaming hardware!Image: Valve \/ Kotaku \/ Andy Lyons (Getty Images)While Valve is no doubt happy that the Steam Deck is a hot commodity these days, it wants to make sure your Deck doesn't cross unsafe temperature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.sciencealert.com\/images\/2022-07\/processed\/PolarBearGlobalWarming_1024.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31443"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}