Humans almost went into extinction four times. The first time was around 150,000 years ago when the atmosphere became very dry right across the world, especially in central, eastern and southeastern Africa where all known humans lived. It’s estimated that the human population at this time could have dropped down to under 2,000 people.

The second near-extinction event was around 70,000 years ago following the super-eruption of a Sumatran volcano called Toba. It’s estimated that Toba ejected roughly 10,000 times more ash and gas than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption did; and was big enough to significantly dim the sun’s light globally for up to 4-6 years, resulting in worldwide cooling and a massive dying of vegetation. This brought the human population down to between 2,000 and 5,000 people.

After this early humans began their migration out of Africa and around the world, because once the ecosystem stabilized following the eruption a ‘green corridor’ all the way up the east side of Africa and along the Nile Valley opened, enabling our ancestors to cross what had formerly been an impassable desert, and spread throughout the world within just the next 35-45,000 years.

Now there is new evidence that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived side by side was consistent with genomic evidence that the two species occasionally interbred. It also feeds the suspicion that the invasion of Europe and Asia by modern humans some 40-50,000 years ago helped drive the Neanderthals, who had occupied the area for more than 500,000 years, to extinction.

Now a human induced fifth extinction is starting. In the USA 941 of all plants species and 737 of all animal species: including 171 Fishes, 93 Clams and 92 Insects species etc. were listed as threatened or endangered in 2025.

A new international study published in Scientific Reports warns that Africa’s forests, once vital allies in the fight against climate change, have turned from a carbon sink into a carbon source. This alarming shift happened after 2010, and underscores an urgent need for stronger global action to protect forests.

Climate change is one aspect of the man-made environmental catastrophe, which is the biggest world wide crisis humanity has ever confronted. It is unprecedented in seriousness and impact. The speed of change is surprising everyone, including climate scientists.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on the planet. It’s five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River. It forms part of the global ocean “conveyor belt”........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)