Sources: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert, Henry Holt, 2014.
CoolClimate Network: http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/
Special thanks to Christopher M. Jones, the lead coordinating researcher at the CoolClimate Network, for answering my questions on carbon neutrality.

Christopher Bernard is a writer, poet, editor and journalist living in San Francisco. His books include the widely acclaimed novel A Spy in the Ruins; a book of stories, In the American Night; and The Rose Shipwreck: Poems and Photographs. His work has appeared in many publications, including cultural and arts journalismin many publications, including cultural and arts journalism in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere, and poetry and fiction in literary reviews in the U.S. and U.K. He has also written plays and an opera (libretto and score) that have been produced and radio broadcast in the San Francisco Bay Area. His poetry films have been screened in San Francisco and his poetry and fiction have been nominated for Puschcart Prizes. He is co-editor of Caveat Lector (www.caveat-lector.org) and a regular contributor to Synchronized Chaos Magazine (www.synchchaos.com), where his essay-story on global warming “Zero Carbon and the Great Extinction” first appeared.