Many years ago, in fact, about 252 million years ago at the end of the Permian Period, a crack opened up in what is now Siberia. Lava poured out covering millions of square miles to a depth of several thousand feet. Millions of metric tons of heat generating lava heated the ground under it. In that ground was multiple layers of coal, oil, and natural gas which caught fire and burned releasing vast amount of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. The air temperature rose, algae and bacteria bloomed killing off creatures living in the seas, and fresh water lakes, and streams. The creatures drinking the poisoned water died, too.

            This was the fourth and largest great extinction on the planet. It took millions of years for earth to recover from the few seeds, plants, and creatures that managed to survive. Since then the surface land has split apart forming mountains. Another extinction hit about 65 million years ago, wiping most of life when an asteroid hit the Gulf of Mexico just off the Yucatan Peninsula.

            Today, we are continuing to burn coal, oil, and gas in massive amounts putting those same gases in the air that caused the mass extinction. We may be doing it slower but the result could be the same. Those who are denying we are heading for disaster will be cursed by their progeny. The rest of humanity doesn’t believe in global warming we know is happening!

            Are we going to be the cause of the Sixth Great Extinction?