Thursday 5 June 2008

Evolution


According to some science buffs, Darwin may well have got it wrong. Human evolution, they believe, may well have happened because of climate change.

So, the question is, will our present state of climate change, which we’ve undoubedly accelerated if not entirely brought about ourselves this time, mean we’ll start evolving again?

There are two arguments to this. One is that we will evolve in order to survive the environment created by climate change, the other is that things are happening far too quickly for homo sapiens (that’s us lot, in case you don’t know) to catch up and evolve in time. I know which argument I subscribe to.

With the human mindset of the wealthy countries seemingly being hell bent on continuing the consumer ride for as long as possible, surviving what for us humans will be an environmental crisis just isn’t possible so why the heck aren’t more people waking up and realising that changes have to be made by all of us if we’re going to have a chance of surviving in any kind of reasonably comfortable manner?

The other side say that if we really do become extinct then it was meant to be; our time had simply come to an end. Well yeah... I suppose everything has to end somewhere but that’s like saying if you’re told you’re seriously ill but there may well be a cure, you might just as well sit back and wait to die cos your time’s been called. Very easy to say when you’re not actually in the situation but something entirely different when you are. I can only think that those who are taking this side of the debate haven’t really understood the impact our selfish actions are having on the planet otherwise they surely wouldn’t take such a laid back view? Blimey, I can be selfish at times and am far from perfect but I'd hate to be that ignorant.

I’d like my children to grow old after living worthwhile, fulfilling lives. I’d like my grandchildren to grow up. I’d like my great-grandchildren to have a chance of being born. I don’t want it to end here. Maybe that’s selfish too? Maybe I just see humans as being more worthy than anything else that may evolve. I dunno... it’s possible, but isn’t the desire to procreate and keep the species alive something that’s programmed into all creatures?

Sure, the dinosaurs died out and up we popped but the dinos didn’t go around saying “shit, we’re causing problems that are threatening our survival but what the hell?” did they? They were innocent. We’re not. We’ve known for a long time that we’re pissing on our own parade but have done very little about it. Doesn’t that make us the dumbest of the ‘dumb animals’?

Oh well... I can’t change things alone but I can at least try to spread some awareness. In the meantime I’ll just carry on doing my bit, hopefully improve on it, and hope that enough people do their bit too so maybe we stand a chance of winning this race before the final line gets washed away because I really don’t believe evolution’s gonna do its thing in time.

Sharon J

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2 comments:

WebSmith said...

Noting that the Theory of Evolution proves nothing and the tragedies that have developed partially as a result of his writings, since I learned that Darwin and Marx were buds and pen pals, I'm wondering what Darwin was really up to. Both of these characters seem to end up with the ultimate morality decisions being made by the government.

Nevertheless, the idea that our technology will somehow allow us to survive in the world we're changing or that "they" will be able to fix things later seems like a pretty steep bet to keep making.

One thing is certain. We do have the capability to stop this right now and not suffer or make great changes in our way of life. A couple of weeks ago, millions of us got together and caused some legislation to be quietly defeated that was a lot less harmful. Why we don't rise to this cause remains a puzzle.

Sharon J said...

The only legislation I can think you might mean is the 10p tax thing and if that's the case then we all know why THAT was more important than the impact we're having on the planet. Money. It still has a very deep root, unfortunately. Not that I'm saying that particular cause wasn't something to challenge the government over but, like you, I can't understand why so many are happy to just sit back and either expect the planet to sort things out for us or accept that it'll soon be curtains for us.

I didn't know that Darwin and Marx were close. Interesting.