Paul Stamets on science: what the evidence says · JRE #1385
SUBJECT: SCIENCE
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
we've entered into 6X, the sixth greatest extinction event known in the history of life on this planet. We've had two other extinction events from asteroid impacts, 250 million years ago, 65 million years ago
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
Stamets attributes two prior mass extinctions, roughly 250 million and 65 million years ago, to asteroid impacts. That is correct for only one of the two: the end-Cretaceous (K-Pg) extinction ~66 million years ago is well-supported by geological evidence of the Chicxulub impact in Mexico and is the extinction most strongly linked to an asteroid strike. The extinction ~252 million years ago (end-Permian, the largest known mass extinction) is attributed by current scientific consensus primarily to prolonged Siberian Traps volcanism, which drove severe global warming, ocean acidification, and anoxia -- not an asteroid impact; no confirmed impact crater or definitive extraterrestrial signature of sufficient scale has been established for that event. The broader framing that Earth is currently undergoing a human-driven "sixth mass extinction" is a widely used concept in conservation biology, though its precise rate and classification relative to the "Big Five" extinctions remain subjects of ongoing scientific discussion. Overall, Stamets's statement combines an accurate claim (the 66-million-year-ago asteroid impact) with an inaccurate one (asteroid impact as the cause of the 252-million-year-ago extinction), making the combined claim misleading.