How the Climate Crisis could lead to a modern ‘Great Dying’

Global warming began approximately 250 million years ago. More than 95% of the marine species in the globe are marineIn the tragedy now known as “The Great Dying.” This was a cataclysm that was inevitable in many ways. It was caused by natural volcanic eruptions that heated the oceans, disrupting the underwater oxygen supply and suffocating marine dwellers. 

On Thursday Science is the journal, researchers said that the current climate crisis could very well be pushing us toward yet another marine mass extinction – one that rivals even the eons-old Great Dying. But they claim it can be avoided. 

Global warming is not caused solely by volcanic eruptions. Human activity is.

The burning of fossil fuels, for instance, is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that exacerbate climate change – yet it’s humanity’s primary way of producing heat and electricity. And even though some energy companies are slowly trying to move toward non-fossil-fuel-burning, sustainable energy such as solar power, we still burn a significant amount of fossil fuels. In some countries, The trend seems to be heading upwards.

“If climate change is not controlled, we could see the emergence extreme extinctions that put back the diversity and marine life to a time never seen in almost 50,000,000 years,” Justin Penn, a Princeton University postdoctoral researcher and co-author of this study.

Penn says that it is not too late for rapid and aggressive greenhouse gas reductions to prevent such outcomes.

A post-2300 Earth in a grim state

The team’s new study states that, if the current rate of greenhouse gas emission continues, we would see a warming of 4 to 5 degrees Celsius by 2100. 

We’d experience temperatures in excess of 10 degrees Celsius by 2300. Penn predicts that we’d also see extinctions similar to the “Big Five”, which were mass extinctions that occurred over the course of Earth’s history. This includes the most recent, which eradicated the 65 million years ago dinosaurs, and most notably, the Great Dying which occurred in Earth’s Permian era. 

Penn’s prior research on what’s known to be the end-Permian Mass Extinction was the driving factor behind his new efforts. 

He stated that similar environmental changes are occurring today because of human greenhouse gas emission. “And so, it was important to understand the implications of extinction risks in modern oceans.”

It is quite shocking to see that the environmental conditions on our blue planet are similar to those of the period prior to one the most destructive events in the history of the world. In other words, it is possible that we are witnessing the same thing as before.

As with the end-Permian calamity, marine species could lose their habitats, suffer from oxygen deprivation, be forced to migrate to places they aren’t acquainted with – and therefore can’t survive in – and undergo many other grim scenarios. We are the reason.

Even though mass extinctions could occur post-2300, Penn offers a poignant perspective. 

“If there’s something we can do to save the only place that we call home, shouldn’t we do everything possible to make it happen?”

What can we do?

Next to their ominous scenario in which a giant percentage of marine creatures die within the next few centuries, Penn and fellow researcher Curtis Deutsch of the National Science Foundation offer a glimmer of hope – albeit one that requires immediate action by politicians, businesses and other people or organizations with enough power to combat the crisis. 

Penn says it is when we “collectively get together and reverse our emission trends to keep global heating from continuing much further.”

Even though it sounds like a large request, the April 4th report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeThis is possible. 

278 scientists from 65 countries came together to figure out how carbon emissions can be reduced. HalbedBy 2030. To keep in line avec the Paris Agreement’s goal, Limit global warming to 1.5- or 2 degrees Celsius, the IPCC says 2025 – at the latest – has to be when our emissions peak. That means that our carbon emissions have to go down from then on. 

Individual scientists are also working to reduce carbon emissions. One team’s Nature publishes climate modelFor example, the University of California at Berkeley discovered a way that could limit warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100. 

It is theoretically possible. These plans must be implemented.

Though if, and perhaps only if, we can follow any of these pathways to climate change mitigation, drastic projections – like the new study’s – could be RemovedFrom humanity’s timeline. The study shows that the marine extinction rate would likely decrease by around 70%. 

It means, there is no modern Great Dying.

Marine devastation in all directions

The new study’s marine mass extermination projections are actually underestimated. It is possible that things could get worse if you consider all the other factors that can threaten the lives our underwater friends. Penn says that this includes human stressors such as overfishing, pollution, and seafloor mining.

Penn stated, “These effects would increase or even amplify the extinctions that we studied from climate warming but we currently do not have a good method to include them in models.” “So, in this light, the extinctions that we project from climate change should be considered conservative.”

For example, ocean pollution has already become so severe that scientists are unable to detect it. The Arctic is home to microplastics. – as far north as you can go on the planet. 

Overfishing is a common practice in the area The Great Barrier Reef has impacted the region’s natural balance, preventing it from recovering from other angles of human-induced distress – including global warming. 

It’s like a vicious cycle. But we can stop it. 

Penn stated, while stressing that “even if we do stop climate change, efforts to reduce other effects on ocean ecosystems, such as overfishing or pollution, are still critical.”