Mass Extinction

( Tomdispatch.com) – The other morning, walking at the edge of a local park, I caught sight of a beautiful red cardinal, the first bird I ever saw some 63 years ago. Actually, to make that sentence accurate, I should probably have put either “first” or “ever saw” in quotation marks. After all, I was […]

Climate Crisis

Why Burning Fossil Fuels is to Today’s Pandemics as Fleas were to the Black Death

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sheri Fink at the NYT reports that Center for Disease Control scientific modeler Matthew Biggerstaff estimated in a conference call that the coronavirus pandemic could last for many months or as long as a year and could infect half to two-thirds of the population of the United States. Between 200,000 […]

Acidification of Oceans

New Findings: 251.9 Million Years Ago Rapid Climate Change from CO2 Wiped out 90% of Species

The Conversation

By Jennifer Botha | – The end-Permian mass extinction is considered to be the most devastating biotic event in the history of life on Earth – it caused dramatic losses in global biodiversity, both in water and on land. About 90% of marine and 70% of terrestrial (land) species went extinct. This event may have […]

Bernie Sanders

On the Big Issues, Bernie Sanders is the Only one who Can Save America

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Generations of orators have told the story that if you put a frog in a pan of steaming water it will immediately jump out, but if you put it in a pan of cold water and gradually heat it, it will be lulled and end up boiled to death. The […]

Climate Crisis

Hot Blob: Worst Ocean Heatwave on Record just Killed 1 Million Seabirds in N. Pacific

The Conversation

By Tim Birkhead | – The common guillemot (known as the common murre in North America) breeds in both the Pacific and the Atlantic and is among the most abundant seabirds in the northern hemisphere. But like many other seabirds, its numbers have declined over the last few decades. Part of that decline is due […]

Climate Crisis

Actually we are implicated in the World’s 7th Mass Extinction of Life on Earth

The Watchers

By Julie Celestial | – (The Watchers) – The biodiversity crisis we experience today– defined by the rapid loss of species and rapid degradation of ecosystems– is believed to be the sixth mass extinction. However, some scientists say it should perhaps be called seventh, suggesting the inclusion of the End Guadalupian in the Big Five […]

Mass Extinction

Is our Civilization Causing the Sixth Great Mass Extinction in Earth’s History?

The Conversation

By Frédérik Saltré and Corey J. A. Bradshaw | – For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also always been part of the evolutionary life cycle. Humans are probably […]

Mass Extinction

Mysterious Mass die-off of Insects threatens Pollination, Food Supply

Nature

Most pollinators are insects (e.g., bees, flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, and thrips), and bees are the most important

Mass Extinction

Where have all the Creatures Gone? Long Time Passing… (Hint: We’ve Killed Them Off)

Tomdispatch

The Age of Biological Annihilation