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Climate change: Fossil record points to future mass extinctions |
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The News -
Climate-Environment
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October 27, 2007 |
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Global warming could cut a swathe through the planet's species over the coming centuries, warns a study released Wednesday that shows a link between rising temperatures and mass extinctions reaching back half a billion years. Each of five major eras of declining biodiversity -- including one in which 95 percent of the Earth's species disappeared -- correspond to cycles of severe warming over the 520-million-year period for which there are fossil records. If emissions of greenhouse gas rise unchecked, the predicted increase in global temperature over the next several hundred years could fall within a similar range as these peaks, said the study, published in a British journal, Proceedings of The Royal Society B. Previous studies have either looked for patterns in climate change or the causes of particular mass extinctions . But this is the first time the two been paired together to give a perspective over such a long time. "If our results hold for current warming -- the magnitude of which is comparable with the long-term fluctuations in Earth climate -- they suggest that extinctions will increase ," lead author Peter Mayhew said in a statement. Source : Yahoo Science
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