Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee
Furthermore, if there is a mass extinction event, how many decades or centuries does it take to fully execute? My children's children children? Maybe? Earth time is not human time. Earth time is like generations of us, and by then we'll have colonized elsewhere anyway.
There's no real prediction in the article as to the timing of this. It's like saying, one day, all humans will probably perish, but that isn't really something new, is it? It's going to happen, but probably not even in the conceivable future realistically.
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Mass extinction events can run many millions of years. The K-T, or K-Pg, event which was a result of a sudden impact and resulting changes was much quicker but other events are slower resulting from changing atmospheric conditions.
The rate at which specific species or family or whatever biological level goes extinct is much more variable. Some may be more resistant to changes and will die of slower or survive altogether while others will perish essentially instantaneously.