The good news is that it won’t come too soon in our generation, but the bad news is that humanity is accelerating towards the “doomsday point.” This event could be on a scale comparable to the greatest mass extinction that wiped out 95% of species on Earth.
According to Science Alert, a study led by climate scientist Kunio Kaiho from Tohoku University in Japan has shown that the greater the global temperature change, the higher the extinction rate.
The sixth mass extinction will be related to global warming – (Photo: LIVE SCIENCE)
For global cooling events, the largest mass extinction occurs when temperatures drop by about 7 degrees Celsius. In contrast, for extinction events related to global warming, the “doomsday point” lies at 9 degrees Celsius.
This figure is significantly higher than previous estimates, which suggested that a rise of 5.2 degrees Celsius would be sufficient to wipe out the oceans.
With new calculations, Dr. Kaiho suggests that the extinction event which killed 95% of species on the planet, which occurred 250 million years ago, is unlikely to be repeated before the year 2500, even under the worst-case scenario.
However, it’s not just the degree of climate change that puts species at risk; the speed at which it occurs is equally important. In this ongoing sixth mass extinction, many species will “fall” not because of the extent of warming, but because of rapid changes that prevent them from adapting in time.
Currently, the danger comes not only from the Earth itself but also from humans. The authors state that it will be very difficult to predict the course of this mass extinction because the ways in which humans are altering the Earth are highly unpredictable.
The study was recently published in the scientific journal Biogeoscience.
