Coral bleaching in March 2016. Rapid rises of greenhouse gases in the past have been linked to major extinctions in the oceans.
XL Catlin Seaview Survey
Humans have wiped out 13% of the world’s plants and animals species, according to a new study.
Our solar system is far from empty. A rogue asteroid or comet may have been responsible for the largest impact site yet discovered in Warburton in central Australia.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Every 30 mil years, Earth has to deal with more comet crashes from space and more intense geological activity from within. Dark matter may be the culprit in these episodes that can cause mass extinction.
Carbon dioxide levels are rising at their fastest rate since the dinosaurs’ time.
iurii/Shutterstock.com
The latest climate projections released last week by the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO predict that Australia could potentially warm by between 2.8C and 5.1C by 2090. Meanwhile, the 2014 State of the…
Zoos provide succor for species having a tough time of it in the wild.
B. A. Minteer
Today, many zoos promote the protection of biodiversity as a significant part of their mission. As conservation “arks” for endangered species and, increasingly, as leaders in field conservation projects…
A dead coral reef in the Caribbean. Coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification.
superqq/Flickr
Scientists are coming to the conclusion that we are on the brink of a mass extinction — the sixth known in the history of the Earth, and the latest since an asteroid killed off the dinosaurs 65 million…
The Great Dying broke even the trilobite’s back.
tjt195
The worst time to be alive in Earth’s history is unarguably the end-Permian, about 250 million years ago. It is the period when the greatest-ever extinction event recorded took place, killing 97% of all…
For millennia, humans have had the tools to change the atmosphere: when will we develop a sense of caution?
AK Rockefeller/Flickr
The era in which humans have had the power to alter the conditions for all life on Earth is widely thought to have begun with the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This era has been dubbed the “Anthropocene…
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University