Under a Green Sky

Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future

Peter D. Ward

• Publisher: Harper
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780061137921
• eBook ISBN: 9780061755453
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

According to University of Washington paleontologist Peter D. Ward, all but one of the major extinction events in the history of the world have been brought on by climate change-the same global warming that occurs today. In Under a Green Sky, he examines the causes of the Permian extinction, an event more than 200 million years ago so cataclysmic that it destroyed more than 90% of all species and nearly 97% of all living things. This near-total devastation was caused by a warming of the earth due to rising levels of carbon dioxide. Ward explains how that extinction, as well as four others, happened, and then applies those chilling lessons to the present day, showing how the ancient past may hold the key to earth's future.

Searchable Terms

Note: Entries in this index, carried over verbatim from the print edition of this title, are unlikely to correspond to the pagination of any given e-book reader. However, entries in this index, and other terms, may be easily located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

acidity, ocean, 111–12, 165–67, 178

acid rain, 5, 69

Aeolian deposits, 50–51

aerosols, 5–6

Africa, 55, 61–66, 79–80, 82, 83–84, 93, 131–32, 139, 162, 175, 190

agriculture, 136, 142, 146, 153, 161–62, 174, 179–80, 186, 189–90, 197

AIDS, 176

air-conditioning, 174, 176

air pollution, 135–36, 158–60, 163, 164, 191–92, 198–99, 201

albedo (reflectivity), 163, 195

Albian stage, 58

Algeria, 54–55, 190

Alley, Richard, 152

Alvarez, Luis and Walter, xii, 4–6, 11–13, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26, 33, 36, 55, 66, 94, 109–10, 112

Alvarez asteroid hypothesis, xi, xii–xiii, 4–6, 20–22, 24, 25, 26, 27–29, 32–41, 45, 55, 58–59, 62, 66, 68–81, 84, 88, 92, 93–98, 99, 103, 106, 109–10, 112, 113, 114–15, 129, 138, 144, 189

Amazonian dark earths, 192 ammonite cephalopods, xi, 1–4, 6–14, 25, 28–30, 32–33, 34, 38, 67, 101, 103–6, 108–14, 123, 173

anaerobic microbes, 117

Anopheles mosquito, 176–77

anoxia, 57–58, 68, 115–16, 126–27, 138, 139–40, 153–54, 197, 202, 203

Antarctica, 41, 73, 83, 118, 123, 132, 144, 146–47, 151, 178, 179, 184, 185, 186, 194, 195, 202–3

anthropogenic sources, 142–43, 145–46, 148, 153–54, 158–60, 165, 180–81, 186–91, 194, 196, 197, 198–99, 200–204

anthropology, 161–67

anticlines, 56

Apennine Mountains, 56–57

Archaeopteryx species, 124–25

Arctic, 41, 121, 123, 132, 151, 152–54, 178, 195, 201

Arctic Ocean, 121 argon, 70

Arthur, Mike, 116–17

ash, volcanic, 49–52, 67, 99, 105–6

Asia Minor, 175

asteroid flux, 40

astrobiology, 120

Atlantic Ocean, 93, 128, 131, 152–54, 172, 178, 180–81, 186, 197, 202

atmosphere, 5–6, 130, 137–38, 140, 146, 158–60, 162–67, 195–96, 201

atoll chain, 171

Australia, 79, 83

automobiles, 158, 163, 164, 192, 198, 201

bacteria, 112–13, 115–21, 125–26, 132, 139–40

Bainbridge Island, 121–25

Baker, Mount, 169

Bambach, Richard, 82

Bangladesh, 181–83, 201–2

barrier reefs, 172–73

basalts, 25–28, 40, 97, 114–15, 136, 137, 181–84

Basque Country, 2, 7, 29–30

bats, 188

Battisti, David, 193–99, 200, 201

bears, 89–90, 102

Becker, Luann, 70–81, 95, 97, 98

bedding plane, 171

Bedout crater, 78, 83

Beerling, David, 137

Bellingham, Wash., 169–70

benthic foraminifera, 150

benthic organisms, 45–47, 150, 202

Berner, Robert, 113, 133–34

betel nuts, 175

Bethulie, South Africa, 61–66

bicarbonate, 166

Bidart, France, 10, 30–33, 37

Big Five extinctions, 18–20, 53, 59, 138

Bighorn Basin, 47–49

biodiversity, 153, 156

biomarkers, 115–16, 125

biomass, 118, 153, 192

biosphere, 5, 17, 20, 47, 85, 94, 114, 153, 156, 187, 198–99

biostratigraphy, 2, 12

birds, 124–25, 188

bivalves, 67, 101, 173

Black Death, 19

blackout periods, 5

Black Sea, 116, 117, 203

black shales, 124

blind sampling programs, 80–81, 98

blooms, 166

Bonarelli bed, 56–57

Bond, Gerard, 150–51

bone remains, 43, 61–66, 96, 115

botany, 133, 136–37

Boundary Bay, 7–14, 29

boundary clay, 10–11, 22, 61–66

boundary layers, 7–14, 22, 28–30, 33, 41–47, 55–58, 61–68, 83–93, 97–98, 119–20

Bowring, Sam, 67, 68, 76, 77

Boyle’s law, 107

brachiopo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• Chapter 01
• Chapter 02
• Chapter 03
• Chapter 04
• Chapter 05
• Chapter 06
• Chapter 07
• Chapter 08
• Chapter 09
• Finale: The New Old World
• Specific References
• Searchable Terms
• About the Author
• Credits
• Copyright
• About the Publisher