‘Great Dying’ can teach us lessons

AN episode of extreme global warming that left ocean animals unable to breathe caused the biggest mass extinction in the Earth’s history, research has shown.

The extinction event at the end of the Permian period 252 million years ago wiped out 96% of all marine species and 70% of land-dwelling vertebrates.

Scientists have linked what has become known as the “Great Dying” with a series of massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia that filled the atmosphere with greenhouse gas.

But precisely what made the oceans so inhospitable to life has remained an unanswered question until now.

The new study, reported in the journal Science, suggests that as temperatures soared the warmer water could not hold enough oxygen for most marine creatures to survive.

Lessons from the Great Dying have major implications for the fate of today’s warming world, say the US scientists.

If greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, ocean warming could reach 20% of the level experienced in the late Permian by 2100, they point out.

By the year 2300 it could reach between 35% and 50% of the Great Dying extreme.