The 'great dying': Rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says

Well this is not good for my rabbit hole of depressing infuriating thoughts.

Ever since I came across this paper¹, I realized that extinction of most life on earth is within our power via CO₂ output. So after reading the op link, I thought, hey what were O₂ levels like during the Permian? Well the story is...

The biggest mass extinction in Earth history some 251 million years ago was preceded by elevated extinction rates before the main event and was followed by a delayed recovery that lasted for millions of years. New research by two University of Washington scientists suggests that a sharp decline in atmospheric oxygen levels was likely a major reason for both the elevated extinction rates and the very slow recovery.

.. not good.

¹ Regarding being convinced that CO₂ could lead to complete human extinction, the rabbit hole went like this for me:

1. https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2015/december/global-warming-disaster-could-suffocate-life-on-planet-earth-research-shows

2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11538-015-0126-0

3. Then via citation of above, human extinction: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12576-016-0501-0

I don’t have a scientific background, so if anyone can poke huge holes in those two pieces of research, then please let me know. I’d love to not think that this was a real possibility.

Edit: word replaced in first paragraph, since we know the path out of this.