The 'great dying':

rapid warming caused 

largest extinction 

event ever, report says

Rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event 

in the Earth’s history, 

scientists have found. 

The mass extinction, 

known as the “great dying”, 

occurred around 252m years ago and marked the end of 

the Permian geologic period.

The event was the single 

greatest calamity ever to befall life 

on Earth, eclipsing even the extinction of the dinosaurs 65m years ago. Up to 96% of all marine species perished 

while more than two-thirds of 

terrestrial species disappeared.

The researchers built a model to 

analyse changes in animal metabolism, ocean and climate conditions. 

They found that marine animals 

essentially suffocated 

as warming waters lacked the 

oxygen required for survival. 

“For the first time, we’ve got a whole 

lot of confidence that this is what 

happened, ” said Deutsch, 

an oceanography expert 

who co-authored the research. 

“It’s a very strong argument that rising temperatures and oxygen depletion 

were to blame.”

Over the past century,

global warming is already causing 

punishing heatwaves, flooding and 

wildfires around the world, 

with scientists warning that 

the temperature rise could reach 3C or more by the end of the century unless

there are immediate, 

radical reductions in emissions.

At the same time, Earth’s species are 

undergoing what some experts have 

termed the “sixth great extinction” due to habitat loss, poaching, pollution and climate change.

“The past holds the key to the future, ” said Pamela Grothe, a paleoclimate 

scientist at the University of Mary 

Washington. “If we continue in the 

trajectory we are on with current 

emission rates, this study highlights the potential that we may see similar rates of extinction in marine species as in the end of the Permian.”

Glossary

an event that causes great damage to people's lives, property, etc

living on the land or on the ground, 

rather than in water, in trees or in the air.

to take and use sb/sth that belongs to sb/sth else, especially in a secret, dishonest or unfair way

the chemical processes in living things that change food, etc. into energy and materials for growth

the act of decreasing something markedly