Russia is on fire. There are fatalities and entire regions have been scorched and destroyed. Here’s footage of volunteers driving directly through the fire to help stranded villagers, full of flames and expletives.
They almost combust, meanwhile their radio is still crinkling with terrible Euro pop and someone takes cellphone pictures while steering around the burning pot holes. Here’s your approximate translation of their dialogue:
Fucked in the mouth!” “Your own mother…” “This is already on fire.” “The horror!” “We need to go back. That tree fucked, it’s tipping over.” “Is the road on fire?” “Well, it would appear as if the road is made from fucking asphalt.” “Careful, careful.” “Fuck, I’m fucked, I don’t know where to go.” “Go! Go! We’re going to make it!” “Wait, no, I can’t.” “Stop. Fuck. Stop. Need to go back.” ‘Onward!” “Are you filming?” ‘Well, yes, I am…” “CAREFUL! CAREFUL! FUCK!” “GET OUT! Idiot, GET OUT! We’re going to burn to shit. CLOSE THE DOOR!” “Let’s go back.” “GET OFF THE ROAD, STUPID BITCH!” “It’s too fucking far.” “IT’S FUCKED OVER THERE!” “Fuuuck… let’s go back.” “GO BACK BITCH!!!” “GO GO GO!!! CLOSE THE WINDOWS!!!” “I can’t see for cock out here.” “Go right!” “There. There.” “That’s it. Let’s go. Steady. Steady.” “Careful.” “STOP! FUCK! STOP!” “Look, that guy left his car.” “Did I just break something off the car? Was that my wheel?” “Oh, fuck that, let’s just get out of here.” “Fuuuuck…” “Those were the pure fires of hell!” “It’s all her fault.” “Something is stuck to the car.” “A branch.” [Collective sigh] “Wow…. fuuuuuck us!”
In 1991, scientists reported that the largest known volcanic event in the past 600 million year -known as the Siberian Traps (image above)- occurred at the same time as the end-Permian extinction. Magma extruded through coal-rich regions of the Earth's crust and blanketed a region the size of the continental United States with basalt to a depth of up to 6 kilometers.
The eruptions that formed the Siberian Traps not only threw ash, debris and toxic gases into the atmosphere but also may have heated the coal and released vast quantities of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.
Rapid release of these greenhouse gases would have caused the oceans first to become acidic and then to become supersaturated with calcium carbonate.
The researchers believe that the volcanic gases from the eruption, which would have have heated the coal and released vast quantities of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere depleting the Earth’s protective ozone layer and acidified the land and sea, killed rooted vegetation. This meant that soil was no longer retained, and was eventually washed into the surrounding oceans. Soils in the oceans would have blocked out light and soaked up oxygen. Analysis of rock chemistry suggests that after the soil crisis on land, the marine ecosystem succumbed to the stresses of environmental change and oceanic life faltered, completing a global catastrophe.
Payne presents evidence that underwater limestone beds around the world eroded at the time of the end-Permian extinction. This finding, coupled with geochemical evidence for changes in the relative abundances of carbon isotopes, strongly suggests an acidic marine environment at the time of the extinction.
"This end-Permian extinction is beginning to look a whole lot like the world we live in right now,"