Earth is presently undergoing major climatic and environmental changes that might drive its 6th great mass extinction. To better understand our future, we may study the records of extinctions through time, proxies for environmental changes, and their ultimate drivers. In the Earth’s past, Large igneous provinces and bolide impacts are among the extinction triggers for mass extinctions and climatic change. Although current extinction triggers differ, processes that operated in the past are still highly relevant (rapid climate change, temperature stress and adaptation, ocean acidification, acid rain, ozone layer depletion, dust deposition). The session will focus on the five main Phanerozoic mass extinctions (end-Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous), but contributions on related environmental events and crises (e.g. PETM, OAEs), including the Anthropocene, are also welcome.