So far we've really only scratched the surface, but there have been hundreds of local mass die-offs (billions of individual animals each). https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150113-mass...
The Great Barrier Reef is about half dead now. In two years. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/since-20...
But look at what happened at the end of the Permian age. 96% of species were lost. It was due to CO2/methane causing climate change. https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/big-five-extinction...
(btw we still have no idea what caused the extinction at the end of the Triassic).
We're basically on the way to combining all of these causes of mass extinctions in a super-short timeframe that may mushroom into one super-massive extinction.
And as far as what-if's go, if climate change sets off a global conflict, and there's a nuclear war, forget it.
[1] https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100728/full/news.2010.379.h...
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/volcano-carbon-emissions/
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/which-emits...
https://www.skepticalscience.com/volcanoes-and-global-warmin...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/06/06/how-...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earthtalks-volcan...
> According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the world’s volcanoes, both on land and undersea, generate about 200 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually, while our automotive and industrial activities cause some 24 billion tons of CO2 emissions every year worldwide
But I guess you're more knowledgeable on the subject than the US geological survey?
> On average, human activities put out in just three to five days, the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide that volcanoes produce globally each year
https://www.usgs.gov/news/human-activities-produce-more-carb...
TBH statements like these really grate on me. Yes, Earth will be fine in the same sense that you'd be fine if you surgically removed your arms, legs, eyeballs, ears, and tongue and then were fed intravenously and your waste disposed of for you. You might live a long life and have lots of nice dreams.
The reality is that we are in early stages of kicking off a cascade of effects that could wipe out the majority of the food web on Earth--let's say, everything larger than your finger. Yeah sure, insects and microbes will reboot it all--in a hundred millions years, if ever. Wonderful!
To make such flippant remarks about so profoundly annihilating the bioversity of this very special planet is not helpful in the dialogue.
Let's please work on this problem seriously.