Introduction : going to Nevada -- ch. 1. Welcome to the revolution! -- ch. 2. The overlooked extinction -- ch. 3. The mother of all extinctions -- ch. 4. The misinterpreted extinction -- ch. 5. A new paradigm for mass extinctions -- ch. 6. The driver of extinction -- ch. 7. Bridging deep past with near past -- ch. 8. The oncoming extinction of winter -- ch. 9. Back to the Eocene -- Finale : the new Old World -- Specific references alluded to in the text -- Index.

More than 200 million years ago, a cataclysm known as the Permian extinction destroyed nearly 97 percent of all living things. Its origins have long been a puzzle. Paleontologist Ward, fresh from helping prove that an asteroid had killed the dinosaurs, turned to the Permian problem, and he has come to a stunning conclusion: that the near-total devastation at the end of the Permian period was caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide leading to climate change. The story of the discovery makes for a globe-spanning adventure. Here, Ward explains how the Permian extinction as well as four others happened, and describes the freakish oceans--belching poisonous gas--and sky--slightly green and always hazy--that would have attended them. Those ancient upheavals demonstrate that the threat of climate change cannot be ignored, lest the world's life today--ourselves included--face the same dire fate.--From publisher description.