Posthuman Blues

Great extinction came in phases

"'This is the first time that we know what's happening to the very base of the food chain at this time. We had no handle on plankton populations before this because they don't fossilise,' commented Dr Paul Wignall of the University of Leeds, who studies the Permian-Triassic extinction.

"'It's very interesting, because to affect the base of the food chain takes a lot of doing. It shows a world in crisis.'"

A lot of doing? Seeing how industrious we are at messing up the biosphere, I'm willing to bet we're up to it. Imagine a skeletal, post-greenhouse Rosie the Riveter, decked out in gas-mask and containment suit, pumping her arm in invitation: "We can do it!"