Author: Ward, Peter D

Over 200 million years ago, a cataclysmic event known as the Permian extinction destroyed more than 90% of all species and nearly 97% of all living things. Paleontologist Peter D. Ward, who helped to prove that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs, explains how the Permian extinction was caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide leading to climate change. This ancient upheaval demonstrates that the threat of climate change cannot be ignored, lest the world's life today - ourselves included - face the same dire fate. 272 pp. April.