This article so far has been my favorite. We've talked about it in my Darwinism class and I like a lot of the observations and research Phelan brings up. The passage about the lactose gene is absolutely fascinating. Evolution is such an interesting topic. I don't agree really with his conclusion about the effects of our industrialization speeding up our extinction. Well, actually, i'm not totally sure if I believe it or not.
It's believable because the thought of massive change occurring rapidly could make sure that natural selection will wipe us all out. It's not believable, because like we've discussed in class, a theory that humans are at the top of the food chain is because they are the best at adapting to a variety of situations. When we didn't have other nutrients besides milk, we adapted to drink it into adulthood. We live in every environment on Earth. No other species can boast that. Our large brains help us invent new tools. Our thumbs are an amazing evolutionary tool that can do millions of different tasks. I can cite about a dozen other references here.
Also, we are able to stop events like global warming from occurring because we are aware of what's going on. We can keep our extinction from happening because we can predict what's going to happen to the environment around us. If all of this is true, I believe that we have a very good chance of surviving just about anything.
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You mentioned how you discussed Phelan in your Darwinism class that was pretty cool. When Ehrlich said he didn't give a shit about what's happening to our genetic evolution I was like oh cool thanks for having absolutely no faith in the human race. Good to hear.
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I agree with you, we do have a good history of surviving catastrophic events. I think though that if we let this sense of invincibility take too much control of our outlook on the health of the environment, we run the risk of digging ourselves into a hole deeper than one we've ever been in. As long as we don't lose sight of the fact that we DO have to do SOMETHING, even if it's a little something, than humans will be fine. We just can't get too full of ourselves :)
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