A Call for Action

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Date: 07/31/04 

Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2004 03:39:25 GMT

A Call for Action

by
Dale Allen Pfeiffer

Abstract

Unprecedented warnings from the scientific community indicate that the
planet's ecosystems are stressed near the point of collapse; business as
usual is no longer possible, and we have little time left to respond.
Civilization is also approaching a nexus of social crises. All of these
problems result from the nature of capitalism, and we cannot expect
solutions from political leaders or corporations. Therefore, this author is
soliciting advice from experts and from anyone who might have suggestions as
to what measures can people of limited means undertake to ease their
transition into a post-petroleum world. Submissions will be published in a
book, the profits of which will be used to inform people and possibly
provide grants in order to help people prepare for the coming transition.

Index

  1. A Planet in Crisis
  2. Business as Usual
  3. The Result of Business as Usual
  4. An End to Business as Usual
  5. Submission Guidelines

A Planet in Crisis

The world's scientific community has issued an unprecedented series of
warnings over the past decade.1 They have worked feverishly to assess the
state of the planet, and have found that all of the Earth's ecosystems are
suffering, with many near the point of collapse. They warn us that we have
one generation, or at most two, to remedy this situation.2 Yet even they do
not understand how little time we have left. They tell us that business as
usual cannot go on. And their assessment goes unheeded.

We are warned that the planet is threatened by global climate change and by
ozone depletion. Ice masses in the Arctic and Antarctic are beginning to
break up, and species vulnerable to increased UV penetration are
diminishing. Skin cancers and eye cataracts are on the increase, as is
desertification the world over. Northern species are retreating as
warm-loving species expand from equatorial regions to high latitudes,
bringing with them diseases once termed tropical. And plant species the worl
d over, including many of our important crop species, are stressed by
increased ultraviolet penetration.3

We are already in the middle of the third greatest extinction event in the
history of the planet. The extinction rate is from 100 to 1,000 times in
excess of the natural rate of extinction.4 The diversity of life on this
planet, which is a clear indication of the health of the biosphere and its
ability to adapt to change, is severely diminished. Humankind has
appropriated fully half of the incipient sunlight on this planet available
for photosynthesis, and has put into cultivation virtually all of the arable
land on this planet.5 The rest of the biota is forced to make due with the
marginal lands which are left, or to scavenge from our refuse.

Modern agriculture is draining the soil of nutrients far faster than they
can be replaced, while soils are being eroded wherever they are exposed.
Surface water is being diverted to the point that in many riverbeds barely a
trickle remains, and groundwater is being pumped out for agricultural and
industrial use at rates exceeding the recharge rates many times over.6 The
world's fisheries are collapsing.7 Everywhere, supplies of vital resources
are being depleted.8

At the other end of the entropy scale, garbage dumps are overflowing.
Pollution, heavy metals and manufactured chemicals are tainting the
atmosphere, the water, and the ground, entering into food chains everywhere.
It is doubtful that there is a person alive today who is not storing
manufactured poisons in her or his body.9

This is but a sampling from a myriad of problems associated with conducting
business as usual. The world scientific community is warning us that we must
deal with these problems now, while there is still time, or these problems
will deal with us. Yet few of these scientists know how very little time we
have to deal with these problems. We do not have a generation or two. In all
likelihood, we have at most a few years.

Within the next 5 to 10 years, our energy base will begin to contract
irreversibly. This shrinking energy base will be due to the inevitable peak
and decline of global oil production. We currently live in the opulence of
the oil age. Each of us has the energy equivalent of some fifty slaves to do
our work for us, and to pamper us with all of the latest technological
comforts. Hydrocarbons are used as feedstock for over 500,000 different
products: fertilizers, medicines, plastics, insulation, computers, asphalt,
inks & toners, paints, glues, solvents, antiseptics, golf balls, CDs, trash
bags, nail polish, detergents, and chewing gum - to name but a few.10 And
virtually all of our industrial processes are run by the energy of
hydrocarbons.

Hydrocarbons have provided us with a treasure trove of high-quality, easily
obtainable energy, from which we could draw at an unlimited rate for so long
as the supply lasted. And it is that abundant energy store which has powered
all of our technological advances, including the green revolution, making
possible a nearly logarithmic growth in human population. When it comes to
the bang for the buck, there is nothing to equal oil. One liter of petrol
holds as much energy as 1,000 liters of natural gas, 3 kilograms of
firewood, or 24 solar panels working all day in sunny Brisbane.11 Oil
provides 1.3 to 2.45 times more economic value per kilocalorie than coal.12

Yet we are fast approaching the day when we will have produced all the
easily obtainable oil.13 From here on out we must invest increasing amounts
of energy to produce oil. In short order, we will reach a day when it will
take as much energy to produce (i.e., extract and, ultimately, refine and
bring to market) a barrel of oil as we will get out of that barrel of oil.
Past this point, the net energy of oil production will fall into the
negative range. We will never run out of oil; there will always be some oil
in the ground. Oil wells are not abandoned because they dry up - they are
abandoned because the net energy production has reached zero.

Nothing has the bang for the buck of oil, and nothing can replace it -
either separately or in combination. Ethanol has a net energy value of zero
(not accounting for soil and water damage and other costs due to
unsustainable agricultural practices) - it is subsidized as a boon to
agribusiness.14 Solar energy produces marginal net energy, and solar
photovoltaic cells (PVC) are built from hydrocarbon feed stocks. Wind
turbines do have an appreciable net energy profile - but the wind is
intermittent at best.15

The highly touted hydrogen fuel cells are not an energy source at all, but
are more properly termed a form of energy storage. Free hydrogen does not
exist on this planet. It requires more energy to break a hydrogen bond than
will ever be garnered from that free hydrogen. The current source of
hydrogen is natural gas - that is, a hydrocarbon. In the envisioned system
of solar PVC & hydrogen fuel cells, every major component of the system,
from the PVC to the fuel cells themselves will require hydrocarbon energy
and feedstocks. The oil age will never be replaced by a hydrogen fuel-cell
economy.16

Coal is abundant, but its net energy profile is poor compared to oil, and
will continue to diminish fast. Coal production is extremely harmful to the
environment, and burning coal is far dirtier than oil.17 Nuclear power
plants are simply too expensive to build, uranium is rare, and the wastes
(including decommissioned plants) must be stored and guarded virtually
forever.18

Industrial, green revolution-style agriculture is particularly energy
intensive. Every calorie of food produced today requires 10 calories of
hydrocarbon energy.19 This includes the energy of packaging and shipping to
the store, but not the energy of consumers traveling to and from the store,
nor the home energy costs of cooking the food. Without hydrocarbons, this
planet can only produce enough food to sustain a population of 2.5 billion.
The current world population is in excess of 6 billion. In the US, without
industrial agriculture, we will only be able to feed 2/3's of our current
population.20

Our energy base will soon begin to contract. The planet's resources are
being depleted, and we are being faced with a planet in crisis. Business as
usual cannot go on.

Business as Usual

Instead of focusing on these critical problems, which threaten to undermine
the quality of life on this planet, we have chosen to ignore them. Instead
of looking for and implementing answers, we put the bulk of our efforts into
denying the very existence of these problems or, failing that, denying that
anything needs to be done about them. At most, we shake our heads before
continuing with our conspicuous consumption and our push for a global free
market.

Neo-classical economists tell us that the market will solve all of our
problems. They assure us that pollution, resource depletion, the collapse of
ecosystems and the failure of agriculture will produce economic stimulus
which will spur the discovery of new resources and the development of new
technologies. The market, they say, will maintain equilibrium no matter how
much people and the environment have to suffer as a consequence. But we must
avoid any impetus towards regulations which might restrict economic growth.
They have no clue how economic growth can be maintained with a shrinking
energy base, so they blithely deny any possibility of the latter.

The neo-classical economists believe that free market capitalism has proven
its supremacy through the collapse of authoritarian communism. Globalization
is the endgame of capitalism, pushing for open access to resources
throughout the globe while driving down labor costs to provide cheap
products and maximum profits. All we have to do to share in the benefits of
this supposedly benevolent system is to consume, consume, and consume more.

Yet the power disparity upon which this system is based has been exaggerated
to the breaking point. The royalty and the robber-barons of previous eras
never dreamed of such a concentration of wealth as that experienced now by
the Waltons, the Gates, and the Eisners of the world. In the United States
as of 2002, the average CEO made 282 times as much as the average worker.21
And the average worker today in the US is actually making comparatively less
than 30 years ago, though worker productivity has increased.22

Outsourcing has given corporations the ability to move jobs to wherever
workers can be paid the least, and where their operations will be subjected
to the least regulation and the least taxation. White collar workers are no
less vulnerable to outsourcing. Even service sector jobs are moving out of
the US whenever possible. And to fill the poor paying jobs that remain,
corporations are bringing in tens of thousands more immigrants every year.
As a result, globalization has become a race to the bottom for the working
class, for communities, and for ecosystems throughout the world.

Not only are people in the working class working harder for less pay, they
are also receiving fewer benefits than comparatively 30 years ago.23 In the
US, consumers are maintaining a record level of personal debt, and personal
bankruptcy now exceeds the divorce rate. Meanwhile, our social safety net is
being dismantled and our infrastructure is being allowed to decay, where it
is not being privatized. Public education has to go begging while the prison
industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country.24

Rugged individualism is the standard of the day, forcing all of us into
direct competition. The basic human instinct toward cooperation has been all
but forgotten in the mad rush to push everyone else aside. Our society has
become atomized; the village green has been replaced by the shopping mall.
Open debate and the free communication of ideas and news can now only be
found in cyberspace.

Yet, at the same time, true individuality and originality has become
suspect. People are encouraged to conform. Cultural distinctions are being
lost in the homogenization of the cultures of the globe - what Benjamin
Barber called "McWorld."

Much of the public is becoming increasingly bovine, unquestioningly
following authority. Critical thinking has been replaced by reactionary
impulses, response to emotional appeals, and other substitutes for rational
debate. Atomized and removed from direct interaction with the world around
them, the overworked populace are largely dependent on the cultural fodder
which is tendered to them by the marketplace. It's a diet of mental junk
food, blended of anxious fantasy, appeals to consume, fear mongering and
quietism, promoted by media industry whose paying advertisers prefer an
audience of passive spectators, addicted to entertainment and largely unable
to govern their own affairs.

The Result of Business as Usual

None of this should come as a surprise. This is all a natural and
foreseeable result of business as usual in a capitalist system. In that
system, capital generates profit through the exploitation of labor and
resources. So, as capitalism approaches its climax on a global scale, it has
to result in an unstable power disparity with the concentration of wealth
among a small and exclusive upper class, an impoverished and disempowered
working class, bankrupt communities, overstressed ecosystems and a depleted
resource base. The only way to avoid this is to do away with capitalism.

Capitalism cannot be reformed. Any attempt to regulate it more fairly, any
attempt to reform capitalism - be it monetary reform or any other sort of
reform - is destined to fail due to the basic unalterable nature of
capitalism. Regulations and reforms may help to level out the playing field
for a time, but in the long run capitalism will find a way to circumvent or
deregulate any attempt to temper it. Capitalism is a system of exploitation
which is ultimately unsustainable.

As such, capitalism is antithetical to democracy. A system is democratic
only to the extent that its citizens are equal - in their political rights;
in their access to participatory social space; in their opportunities to
secure purchasing power without the threat of poverty or asset seizure; and
in their recourse to the law, whose equal protection must be guaranteed to
everyone if the term "democracy" is to meaningfully apply. Genuine popular
sovereignty (the literal meaning of democracy) is sustained by an informed
citizenry. Yet capitalism is based upon the exploitation of power
disparities, and its smooth operation is maintained by a disempowered,
uninformed working class.

Here lies the reason for the failure of democracy in the US. And here is the
secret of why our founding fathers chose a system of representative
democracy, and why the ratification of the US Constitution was resisted by
the public in its day. The framers of the constitution were, without
exception, rich white males worried about a popular uprising. Under the
draperies of democracy, they designed a political system where decision
making power was insulated from the general population and easily controlled
by the rich and powerful. This disparity was later heightened by granting a
protected status and legal rights to corporations.25

As a result, every war the US has ever fought, every intervention the US has
ever sponsored, and every bit of foreign aid the US has ever supplied was
undertaken to support the right of the upper class to exploit labor and
resources, all under the guise of democracy.

An End to Business as Usual

Business as usual can no longer be allowed to proceed. To go on with
business as usual is to promote the collapse of civilization, the
destruction of ecosystems, the death of billions of human beings, untold
suffering and impoverishment for those who survive, and just possibly the
extinction of life on this planet at a level to match or exceed the end of
the Permian Era.26 And all this to ease our consciences, as we allow the end
play of unbridled greed and ignorance.

We cannot trust our elected leaders to do the right thing, much less our
corporations. There is very little time left, and it could very well be
impossible at this point to redesign our entire civilization. But we can
possibly restructure our own lives and our local communities to survive the
transition. This is our duty to generations to come, and to the rest of the
biosphere.

But we need options and advice. We need practical suggestions which can be
undertaken by individuals, families and small communities. We need guidance
on what can be achieved at a local level with limited means. And we need
advice on how to achieve this in the most democratic and egalitarian manner
possible.

To aid in this, I am here soliciting advice from specialists in various
fields, such as permaculture, social ecology, progressive labor, and other
disciplines. And I am putting out a call for articles from anyone who feels
that she or he has some advice to offer. The topic is: Given the conditions
set forth in this paper, what measures can people of limited means undertake
to ease their transition into a post-technological world?

The resulting suggestions will be collected, along with this essay, and
published. Any profits from this project will be used to educate people
about the changes ahead, and hopefully to offer grants in order to help
people prepare for the transition.

Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Geologist, Science Journalist, Novelist
Holly, Michigan, USA
April 26th, 2004

Submission Guidelines

  a.. " All submissions should be 3,000 words or less.
  b.. " All submissions should include a title and a synopsis of 2 or 3
sentences explaining the contents of the paper.
  c.. " All submissions should address the question: Given the conditions
set forth in this paper, what measures can people of limited means undertake
to ease their transition into a post-technological world?
  d.. " Email submissions should be included in the body of the email. No
attachments please. If you need to use graphs and illustrations, query
first. All email should be addressed to calltoaction0416@earthlink.net
  e.. " Snail mail submissions should be double spaced, in standard
paragraph format. All snail mail should be addressed to Dale Allen Pfeiffer,
PO Box 892, Clarkston, MI, USA 48347.
  f.. " Deadline: The tentative deadline for submissions is July 30th, 2004.

Chapter Headings

Suggested chapter headings are as follows. These may be altered or
additional headings may be added.

  General Topics (Topics which can apply to anyone anywhere in the world)
  1. Food (permaculture & sustainable agriculture, etc.)
  2. Building (building and remodeling for sufficiency, etc.)
  3. Energy Generation (Wind turbines, methane generation, etc.)
  4. Transportation (bicycles, horses, etc.)
  5. Barter and Alternative Local Economics (economies of scale,
alternatives to money, etc.)
  6. Organizing (community organizing, cooperatives, etc.)
  7. Democratic & Egalitarian Models (consensus decision making, and other
techniques to ensure democracy but avoid the dictatorship of the majority;
worker owned businesses, reparations)
  8. Urban Survival (urban gardening, water gathering, etc.)
  Regional Sections (Advice for particular regions, generalized for the main
ecosystem types on the planet, though area specific papers are welcome.)

    1. Temperate Forests
    2. Rainforest
    3. Coastal Areas
    4. Fresh Water Areas
    5. Mountain Regions
    6. Deserts
    7. Grasslands
    8. Tundra
    9. Islands
    10. Wetlands
    11. Scrub Brush Regions

Dale Allen Pfeiffer
PO Box 892
Clarkston, MI. USA 48347
____________________

1 For the story of these warnings see The End of the Oil Age, Chapter 15,
Imminent Peril, Part 1, by this author; (http://www.lulu.com/allenadale).
Or find the same article in the archives at www.fromthewilderness.com.
The individual warnings can be found online:
Population Growth, Resource Management and a Sustainable World.
Joint Statement of the Royal Society of London and the US National
Academy of Sciences, 1992. Archived at http://www.dieoff.com/page7.htm
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity. Union of Concerned Scientists,
11/18/1992. http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/page.cfm?pageID=1009
Joint Statement by 58 of the World's Scientific Academies. US National
Academy of Sciences, 10/27/1993.
http://www4.nas.edu/iap/iaphome.nsf/weblinks/SAIN-4XVKHY?OpenDocument
Joint National Academy of Sciences and Royal Society Resolution:
Towards Sustainable Consumption. US National Academy of Sciences, 1997.
http://www4.nas.edu/NAS/nashome.nsf/Multi+Database+
Search/65F4E52642745F1485256709006FBD91?OpenDocument
World Scientists' Call for Action. Union of Concerned Scientists, December,
1997. http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/page.cfm?pageID=1007
Transition to Sustainability in the 21st Century: The Contribution
of Science & Technology. InterAcademy Panel,
May 2000.
http://www4.nas.edu/iap/iaphome.nsf/weblinks/SAIN-4XVLCT?OpenDocument

2 An overview of these global assessment studies can be found in
The End of the Oil Age, Chapter 15, Imminent Peril, Part 1, by
this author; (http://www.lulu.com/allenadale). Or find the same
article in the archives at www.fromthewilderness.com. The actual
assessment studies can be accessed via these links:
Guide to World Resources, 2000-2001: People & Ecosystems;
The Fraying Web of Life. World Resources Institute, April 2000.
http://wri.igc.org/wri/wrr2000/
Global Environmental Outlook-3. United Nations Environment Programme,
May 22 2002. http://www.grida.no/geo/geo3/
State of the World 2003. Worldwatch Institute, June 2003.
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/sow/2003/

3 The story of industry-induced global climate change is presented in my
ongoing series Global Climate Change and Peak Oil, which can be found
at http://www.fromthewilderness.com.
The scientific case for industry-induced climate change, and its impact,
are discussed in full detail at Climate Change 2001, The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/
And a statement of the world's scientific academies supporting this study
can be found at The Science of Climate Change. 5/17/2001.
http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/files/statfiles/document-138.pdf
Some web sites with information about ozone depletion are:
http://www.epa.gov/ozone/
http://www.igc.org/envreview/blaustei.html
http://www.arn.org/currpage/uvhealth.htm
Sites with additional information about global climate change are:
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
http://www.ucsusa.org/warming/

4 An excellent website for information on the current mass
extinction is: http://www.well.com/user/davidu/extinction.html

5 Human appropriation of the products of photosynthesis, Vitousek,
P.M. et al. Bioscience 36, 1986. http://www.science.duq.edu/esm/unit2-3
Land, Energy and Water: the constraints governing Ideal US Population Size,
Pimental, David and Pimental, Marcia. Focus, Spring 1991. NPG Forum,
1990. http://www.dieoff.com/page136.htm

6 For information about the effects of modern agriculture, see
The End of the Oil Age, Chapter 17, Eating Fossil Fuels, by this
author; (http://www.lulu.com/allenadale). Or find this same article in
the archives at www.fromthewilderness.com.
Food, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy, Executive Summary,
Pimentel, David and Giampietro, Mario. Carrying Capacity Network,
11/21/1994. http://www.dieoff.com/page40.htm

7 Collapse of Wild Fisheries, Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
Co-published by Wilderness Committee and the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs,
Vol. 21. No. 5; Fall, 2002.
http://www.wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/marine/policy/fish_farms/
reports/fall2002/collapse
Why Fisheries Collapse and What To Do About It, Roughgarden,
Jonathan, & Smith Fraser. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, Vol. 93, pp. 5078-5083; May, 1996.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/93/10/5078.pdf

8 The Limits to Growth, Meadows, Dennis, et al. Universe Books, 2nd Edition.
Limits to Growth: the 30 year global update, Meadows, Dennis,
Randers, Jorgen, & Meadows, Donella. Chelsea Green Publishing Company,
June 2004.
Influence of Capital Inertia on Renewable Resource Depletion,
Weisbuch, Gerard, et al. Labratorie de Physique Statistique de l'Ecole
Normale Supérieure; February, 1997.
http://www.lps.ens.fr/~weisbuch/inert/p3/p3.html

9 http://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/

10 The Oil Crash and You, Thomson, Bruce. Look in the RunningOnEmpty2
Yahoo Group's files section. Document name: !CONVINCE *** v19.doc.
9/2/2001. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/files/

11 Oil Crisis Powerpoint Presentation, Stasse, Mike. Look in the
RunningOnEmpty2 yahoo group's files section. Document name: oil crisis.ppt.
2/14/2004. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/files/

12 Synopsis, edited by Hanson, Jay. March 8, 2001.
http://www.dieoff.com/synopsis.htm

13"Petroleum experts Colin Campbell, Jean Laherrere, Brian Fleay,
Roger Blanchard, Richard Duncan, Walter Youngquist, and Albert Bartlett
(using various methodologies) have all estimated a "peak" in "conventional
oil"
around 2005. Moreover, the CEOs of Agip, ENI SpA, (Italian oil companies)
and
Arco have all published estimates of peak in 2005. So it seems like a
reliable
estimate." Synopsis, edited by Hanson, Jay. March 8, 2001.
http://www.dieoff.com/synopsis.htm
For more information on the peak of global oil production, see The End
of the Oil Age, by this author. Lulu Press, April, 2004.
http://www.lulu.com/allenadale. Or The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the
Fate of Industrial Societies, Heinberg, Richard. New Society Publishers,
2003.
The Energy Information Administration and the US Geological Survey estimate
peak world oil production around 2025 to 2030. But their methodologies have
been highly criticized, and members of both agencies have privately
expressed doubts concerning these estimates.

14 Ethanol from Corn: clean renewable fuel for the future, or drain
on our resources and pockets?, Patzek, Tad W. Dept. of Civil and
Environmental
Engineering, University of California, June 14, 2003.
http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/Courses/E11/PatzekEthanolPaper.pdf
Ethanol from Corn: just how unsustainable is it?, Patzek, Tad W. Seminar
at Stanford University. http://pangea.stanford.edu/ESYS/Energy%
20seminars/patzek_ethanol.pdf

15 The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies,
Heinberg, Richard. New Society Publishers, 2003; pp. 139-146.

16 For a critical look at some of the problems associated with hydrogen
fuel cell technology, see The End of the Oil Age, Chapter 8, Much Ado
about Nothing, by this author. Lulu Press, April, 2004.
http://www.lulu.com/allenadale
Or see The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies,
Heinberg, Richard. New Society Publishers, 2003; pp. 146-149.

17 The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies,
Heinberg, Richard. New Society Publishers, 2003; pp. 129-132.
Beyond Oil, Gever, John, et al. Univ. Pr. Colorado, 1991. pp. 65-68.

18 The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies,
Heinberg, Richard. New Society Publishers, 2003; pp. 132-139.

19 The Tightening Conflict: Population, Energy Use, and the Ecology
of Agriculture, Giampietro, Mario and Pimentel, David, 1994.
http://www.dieoff.com/page69.htm

20 The End of the Oil Age, Chapter 17, Eating Fossil Fuels, Pfeiffer, Dale
Allen.
Lulu Press, April, 2004. http://www.lulu.com/allenadale

21 Executive Excess 2002, Anderson, Sarah, et al. Institute for Policy
Studies & United for a Fair Economy, August 26th, 2003.
http://www.ufenet.org/press/2003/EE2003.pdf

22 State of Working America 2002-2003: Executive Summary
and Introduction. Economic Policy Institute.
http://www.epinet.org/press/embargoed/swa2002.pdf

23 Ibid.

24 The Prison Industry. http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PII.jsp?topicid=119

25 Toward an American Revolution: Exposing the Constitution and other
Illusions, Fresia, Jerry. South End Press, 1988.
A People's History of the United States: 1492 to present, Zinn Howard.
Perennial, 2003 (latest edition).

26 The Permian Era ended approximately 250 Million Years Ago, in an
extinction
event which killed off 95% of all marine life on the planet, and 70% of all
land
families. It was much worse than the end of the dinosaurs, which ranks a
distant second on the list of extinction events (the current extinction
event
ranks third). It is now most widely accepted that the Permian Extinction
began
with volcanic outgassing leading to global warming, which in turn sparked
off
massive methane venting from permafrost and from the ocean floor, resulting
in runaway global warming. The implications for modern global warming are
frightening.
For more on the Permian Extinction, a good starting place is:
http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk/Palaeofiles/Permian/intro.html

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