I figured for my last post, I’d discuss the future of our planet and species, given that we’ve been talking about evolution, natural selection, dominant species, etc. I’ve often wondered why, aside from evolving from Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and finally Homo sapiens, we have stopped where we are. I believe that the changing world within the next few thousand years (in terms of climate change; rising sea levels; continent shifts; etc) will bring about a new kind of human. By the word ‘new’ I do not mean we will be flying around with wings or swimming in oceans with fish gills, but rather subtle changes could occur, such as extreme height changes (people on average used to be very small). Maybe in the future our tailbones will fully develop and act as a fifth limb. Whatever the scenario, I have to believe that our species will somehow adapt.
Think about it- organisms have been adapting to extreme environments for millions of years, and given all of the predicted crises our planet is supposed to endure in our lifetime alone (‘global warming’; super-tornados/hurricanes/tsunamis; the expected demise of Earth in the year 2012, etc.), I feel it is only rational to think that the human race will eventually shift significantly. Someone brought up in class (sorry- I forget who) that there are miniscule organisms below Earth’s crust that are able to transform carbon into methane. I think this is a perfect example of the fact that no matter what, life finds a way to survive; or rather Earth finds a way to sustain itself.
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I think it is important as humans to understand that we need to adapt as well. I feel that right now as a society we are not adapting and therefore hurting the Earth. Yes, times and technology will change, but we need to remember to have compassion for the Earth and not completely illustrate dominance over nature.
ReplyDeleteI am not so sure we will adapt as much as you think we will. The key to adapting in the evolution of animals seems to be the constantly changing environment. As certain bodies of water started drying out millions of years ago, some amphibians developed legs and made their way onto land. The penguin is a good example of such evolution. The characteristics of the animal obviously still suggest that the penguin is a bird. But penguins no longer act like birds. They swim underwater catching fish and cannot fly. They have adapted to the harsh arctic environment where the only source of food is in the water. They are becoming more and more like seals and dolphins. The problem that I see with human evolution here is that people have figured out to have the same environment no matter where we are located. Our buildings have air conditioners in hot climates and heaters in cold ones always maintaining the same atmosphere that's comfortable to us. We even have the same TV stations no matter where you are located in a country. We have created a static environment for ourselves and do not need to adapt anymore. We have changed the environment to adapt to ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure we will evolve much further during the further in the upcoming climate changes, well at least not in a natural way. I believe that it is more likely that we will use technology to evolve ourselves, by biological engineering. The other option that is plausible is that we alter the environment to work for us. This could be done in 2 ways. The first, we all live in bubble that has our climate or we change the earths climate back through altering it. The other option is that we actually live with the planet and fit our lives to the environment provided for us.
ReplyDeleteWe now have the ability, through technology, to evolve ourselves or change the planet so that we do not have to evolve.