A new documentary called "Mass Extinction: Life at the Brink" from The Smithsonian Channel suggests humans will soon wipe-out life on Earth.

The documentary detailed two major mass extinction events in history. The first event examines the K/T extinction that occurred during the Cretaceous-Tertiary period. This event some 66 million years ago destroyed three fourths of all animal and plant species, including the dinosaurs.

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This massive worldwide extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an iridium rich asteroid that smashed into the Earth with a force so great and explosive it formed the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula.

The global firestorm the asteroid ignited was so catastrophic only creatures that lived deep underground in burrows and caves survived.

The second mass extinction event is "The Great Dying." This extinction occurred some 250 million years ago and annihilated almost 90 percent of all living creatures, plants and even micro organisms. An asteroid wasn't the cause of this fatal global phenomenon, however. 

Evidence led scientists to conclude it was caused by massive and simultaneous volcanic eruptions, mainly in Siberia, that covered the land with boiling fields of lava and unleashed massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

This methane trapped in the atmosphere led to an extreme greenhouse effect that trapped heat in the atmosphere. This event  triggered an unprecedented climate change that in some ways bears similarities to the climate change being experienced today,

Scientists focused on The Great Dying since this event was a direct result of global warming. They said the lessons from The Great Dying serve as warnings of how climate change can destroy the world.

Simultaneous massive volcanic eruptions may have caused the last mass extinction but the documentary details it's not too late to counter the effects of climate change caused by industrialization and gas and coal emissions.

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