Experts
Peter Ward
Paleontologist, University of Washington, Seattle
The continental game of bumper cars known as plate tectonics is part of a global recycling system crucial to maintaining long-term temperature constancy—and giving rise to life. Read More
The CO2 levels Peter Ward measured on a recent trip to Antarctica left him with a bleak view of the future of the planet. Read More
The CO2 levels Peter Ward measured on a recent trip to Antarctica left him with a bleak view of the future of the planet. Read More
From asteroids to worldwide hydrogen sulfide poisoning, extinction expert Peter Ward offers a diverse menu of scenarios for humanity’s demise. Read More
Climate change makes the extinction expert toss and turn. Read More
The biologist and paleontologist remembers “the smartest man [he’s] ever known.” Read More
The idea that “going back to nature” will solve the climate crisis is a dangerous misconception. Read More
Peter Ward explains how the scientific community can improve its dismal public outreach—and why he believes the problem of women in science is solving itself. Read More
Our inability to detect other life in the universe may stem from interstellar communication problems. Then again, it may be because Earth evolution is “like Mr. Bean.” Read More
Why Earth may be exceptional, and life exceptionally rare in the universe. Read More
Peter Ward’s “Medea Hypothesis” suggests that all multicellular life is doomed to kill itself off in the long run. Intelligence, he says, may be the only loophole. Read More
The economic slowdown has briefly slowed CO2 emissions. Humanity may still squeak through the climate crisis—though not without “untold misery,” says Peter Ward. Read More
An interview with the biologist and paleontologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. Read More
About Peter Ward
Peter D. Ward, Ph.D., is a paleontologist and professor in the Departments of Geology and Biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also serves as an adjunct professor of zoology and astronomy. His research specialties include the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event and mass extinctions generally. His books include the best-selling "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe" (co-author Donald Brownlee, 2000), "Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future" (2007), and "The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive?" (2009).