• Question: how do you think humans will be forced to evolve if the world becomes uninhabitable to our species?

    Asked by rh05 on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Difficult call. You have to remember that evolution is an extremely long process. If something rapid and irreversible happens we may not survive by evolution (see dinosaurs). We might survive by scientific and technical know-how.

      Thinking on this subject but with a twist. Did you know that many Aboriginal peoples (native Americans, Australian aboriginals, Inuit peoples) really struggle with diseases like diabetes? When they move out of their traditional communities and into society at large their bodies’ aren’t programmed to deal with the kind of food we eat and the life-style we lead. They are still programmed to conserve as much nutrition as possible and not to process our energy packed, easily available food. This leads to a much higher incidence of diabetes in these communities. An example of peoples out of step with the evolution of society.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Hi rho5! Wow, what an interesting question which I often pondered on when I was younger…all because when I was about 16 I read this science fiction story about how humans had grown larger lungs to cope with the increased pollution in the air and shorter legs because they drove everywhere rather than walk! I am not sure if we would evolve like this but it did spark my imagination.

      Now that I work in the environmental science field…….perhaps the efficiency with which we could take in oxygen could improve and perhaps we would develop some sort of filtration system in our lungs to filter out all the particles? Perhaps we would have shorter legs because we don’t walk so much?! Perhaps we would tolerate living in higher temperatures and could drink sea water? who knows??? but interesting thoughts!!!:)

      Anway…this is all rather glooming on reflection…..if we all change our behaviour and minimise our impact on the environment, then hopefully, we shall never come to this point!:)

Comments

  • Photo: Marianne

    Marianne commented on :

    Hiya rh05.

    Nice question – elsewhere we’ve been talking about how evolution is ongoing.

    As Andrew said, if something very fast and devastating happens, it’s possible that many species won’t survive – I’ve mentioned that polar bears (and other species) might not survive rapid climate change because they don’t have time to adapt. Evolution is slow and such speedy changes don’t allow for advantages conveyed by random mutations to have their effects and allow individuals to survive challenging conditions. The dinosaurs are a great example.

    Of course, if the Earth is uninhabitable, then that means we either don’t live on it (being the definition of uninhabitable) or go somewhere else!