Local and Global Discussion Group May meeting

April 20, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Global Warming, Extinctions, Evolutions

The Local and Global Discussion Group of the Weston Public Library will welcome Dr. Alan Rice from 1:15 to about 2:30 pm on Tuesday, May 5, in the Community Room of the Library for a lively presentation of these topics, which are still relevant to today’s world.

Since the Cambrian Period some 530 million years ago, there have been five mass extinctions of life on the planet. All of them have now been attributed to global warming brought about by massive volcanic activity yielding lava flows kilometers thick and covering vast areas of the surface of the earth. A major effluent from these volcanic events is carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that is known for its contribution to global warming even in this day.
Two of these extinctions are particularly notable. The first took place in Russia about 250 million years ago and led to the disappearance of 90% of all life on earth; the second was in India some 65 million years ago and has, along with the Meteor Impact Theory, been accorded the responsibility for dinosaur extinction.

Life is more sensitive to temperature than one might think, with large animals having greater sensitivity to heat than smaller ones. Hence, downsizing seems to be an evolutionary trick to save the species. For example, during the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum 55 million years ago, horses shrank to the size of cats.
Particularly sensitive to overheating throughout much of the animal kingdom is the Central Nervous System. If the current global warming trend continues, what will become of primates like us whose brains have exploded in size over the past 2 million years, during which the earth has cooled down considerably.
Studies of the environment have led to the recognition that evolution has not proceeded in a linear trend, but occurs as sharp jumps following an extinction. There is, after all, little reason to evolve in an unchanging environment.
Dr. Rice has a number of advanced degrees from Columbia University in subjects such as applied physics, applied mathematics, and engineering. He has taught geophysics, geology, sustainability issues, physics, engineering, and oceanography.
The meeting will be both in person and via Zoom. It is open to all who wish the discuss the issues in civil discourse with a wide variety of participants. The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81849707570.
Questions? Comments? Contact Susan Wagner at 508-314-5341 or susanwgnr@gmail.com.
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