Earth's largest-ever mass extinction is a warning for humanity
CBS News
Katherine Niemczyk
Thu, March 4, 2021, 8:44 PM·6 min read
Right now our planet is in the midst of what science says is an unprecedented rate of change, unlike anything seen in tens of millions of years. Overconsumption, unsustainable practices and the release of immense amounts of greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels are altering our life-sustaining climate at a dangerous pace, oceans are acidifying and losing oxygen, and species are dying off.
But this is not the first time that life on our planet has faced an epic challenge. The worst came a little over 250 million years ago — before dinosaurs walked the earth — in an episode called the Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction, or the Great Dying, when 90% of life in the oceans and 70% of life on land vanished.
Recently, two groundbreaking studies on the Great Dying reveal that the causes of that mass extinction bear some striking similarities to what's happening today. In fact, in some ways the pace of change, such as the rate of release of greenhouse gases, is much faster today than it was 250 million years ago.
Scientists say historic episodes like this offer a timely warning to humanity of what can happen when ecosystems change too fast for life to keep up... In fact, the evidence compiled by scientific research on today's pace of change is ominous to say the least. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing at a pace 100 times faster than it naturally should. Our planet is warming 10 times faster than it has in 65 million years. Our oceans are acidifying 100 times faster than they have in at least 20 million years, and oxygen dead zones in our oceans have increased tenfold since 1950.
More here-good read
https://news.yahoo.com/earths-largest-ever-mass-extinction-014420796.html
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At the current rate, it's hard for me to imagine how we will make it even as far as 2100. I have seen so many changes for the worse over the course of my lifetime. The forests here in the Colorado mountains are dying more quickly than I would have ever thought possible. Many once common species of birds are diminishing in number. Even the insects are impacted. Sometimes I just have to cry. 
on this board. But many of these posters here are brilliant and smarter than me so I take it that maybe my evolutionary emotional belief in survival is trumping my intellect.
The more I read here the grimmer it gets and the ONLY thing that will have a chance at saving climate catastrophe is action and action now. Predictions of our timeline for survival is not in my wheelhouse and I would leave that to others. I believe Jane Goodall said it best:
Well, if we continue with business as usual, we're going to come to the point of no return. At a certain point the ecosystems of the world will just give up and collapse and that's the end of us eventually too. What about our children? We're still bringing children into the world — what a grim future is theirs to look forward to.
https://www.ecowatch.com/jane-goodall-2646381906.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
So I am more on the cynical side. I do think it quite possible humans will become extinct in the future.
