Mass extinctions come from collapse of Earth's ecosystems and geological systems. They shift into a new configuration in which most species don't fit, and the result is global disaster.

The accelerated heating and local disasters we have recently seen suggest we are coming closer to such a global disaster. Enormous systems, including the Arctic sea ice, the circulation of the Southern Ocean, and rainfall in the Amazon Forest, are showing large changes.

Earth's governments, most of them in thrall to selfish billionaires, have been nearly useless for trying to save Earth's life.