Researchers find smoking gun of world’s biggest extinction
Deniers are fond of spouting the “climate change is natural” canard. What that shallow and simplistic talking point fails to acknowledge is that different events can set off the process of greenhouse gas buildup. 250 million years ago, volcanic eruptions burned that coal. What (or should I say, who) is causing the most coal burning now?About 250 million years ago, about 95 percent of life was wiped out in the sea and 70 percent on land. Researchers at the University of Calgary believe they have discovered evidence to support massive volcanic eruptions burnt significant volumes of coal, producing ash clouds that had broad impact on global oceans.
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“Our research is the first to show direct evidence that massive volcanic eruptions—the largest the world has ever witnessed—caused massive coal combustion thus supporting models for significant generation of greenhouse gases at this time,” says Grasby.
“We saw layers with abundant organic matter and Hamed immediately determined that they were layers of coal-ash, exactly like that produced by modern coal burning power plants,” says Beauchamp.
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“It was a really bad time on Earth. In addition to these volcanoes causing fires through coal, the ash it spewed was highly toxic and was released in the land and water, potentially contributing to the worst extinction event in earth history,” says Grasby.
From a coal ash spill in Tennessee:
It would be nice if we humans could avoid duplicating the conditions that led to Earth’s worst extinction event.
