Daniel Rothman says carbon in the atmosphere may push our seas past a tipping point, triggering a cascading catastrophe for global ecosystems that we do not yet fully understand

By LUKE TRESSToday, 4:57 am

https://www.timesofisrael.com/headed-for-a-sixth-mass-extinction-mit-geophysicist-warns-oceans-are-on-the-brink/

A diver works at an underwater coral nursery inside the Oracabessa Fish Sanctuary in Jamaica, on February 12, 2019. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Earth’s skin already bears the scars of the climate crisis. Fires ravage forests, hurricanes swamp coastlines, floods drown city blocks and entire species disappear. But beneath the surface layer, in the planet’s rocks, lies evidence of past catastrophes much more severe.

Daniel Rothman, a professor of geophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, believes we may be creeping toward a calamity for Earth’s life system as a whole — the planet’s sixth mass extinction event.

The staggering amount of carbon humans are pumping into the atmosphere and the oceans may soon cross…