Expeditious Evolution

From the very beginnings of life on Planet Earth to today, evolution has gradually brought about change and adaptation. As environmental conditions have altered, bringing about new climates, life forms have soon followed suit—the luckier variations altering to thrive in the new situation, while the less fortunate ones died out. This elegant process has caused relentless and progressive adaptation on the part of plants and animals—with the result that, at any given moment in time, the mix of living species is fairly well balanced.

There have been, however, numerous occasions when the environment changed so dramatically and rapidly that many species could not adapt quickly enough, so they became extinct. There have been half a dozen or so catastrophic events that caused some 70-95% of plant and animal species to disappear, but life soon adjusted and began to flourish again, as new species came into existence.

We are now in the midst of the latest major environmental change. It is being designated as the Anthropocene Age transformation—whereby the planet is rapidly heating. This change is being brought about by humans. And the rate is hundreds and thousands of times faster than in any comparable change in the past! That faster pace will likely see the extinction of far more species than in the past.

And yet there is already evidence that some animals are currently altering their physiology, in attempts to adapt to the warmer conditions. Some of these critters have slowly evolved (over millions of years) to find ways to radiate excess body heat. Birds' beaks help them cool, because their bills are not covered with insulating feathers. Similarly, some furry animals have evolved hairless ears, tails, and legs, in order to shed excess heat.

Current scientific research is showing that some bird species are adapting to hotter climates by growing larger beaks—to radiate heat better. Some mammals are growing longer ears or less hair on their legs. Some bats have had their wing size increase. This is evolution in action, and is rather heartening. But there may well be more to the story that is less heartening. Might these recent changes negatively impact other bodily needs, such as the ability to avoid predators or attract sexual partners? Might the changes be better at dissipating heat, but worse off for other needs?

Most importantly, the Anthropocene climate change is occurring at breakneck speed—over dozens of years, rather than thousands. That is too fast for some species to respond. Unable to change in time, they face the prospect of disappearing. Time will tell, as they say.

Change Blindness—Part 1

The 19^th century saw a major shift in how humans viewed their planet and our place on it. That shift stemmed from the many scientific discoveries that were rapidly occurring at the time, as Western science began to blossom. Prior to this time, science and religion were mostly in harmony; with a few exceptions such as Galileo, when the Roman Catholic Church found him guilty of the heresy that proclaimed a helio-centric universe (rather than Earth-centered) and confined him to house arrest. 

The majority of scientists in those times held beliefs that did not conflict with the churches' teachings, since the view of most people was that the world indeed had been created by God, as the Bible describes. What's more, that world was perfect and unchanging. Most scientists—many of whom were also clergy—were convinced that the world would continue to be very much as it was at the time.

Human understanding of the cosmos then was quite limited—especially as to its age. Some had suspicions that Earth was maybe a few million years old, but nothing like over four billion years old. They also had no idea that the planet had settled into a benevolent climate in the last 12,000 years or so, and had often been inhospitable, prior to that time. Humans had had but the tiniest slice of the historical record to interpret the world's nature, with no understanding of how historically unrepresentative that slice was.

Then Charles Darwin published his bombshell treatise on evolution and natural selection in 1859. His book shook both the scientific and religious communities, by starkly refuting both of their belief systems. Darwin showed that nature was not immutable, but had been in a state of metamorphosis for a long time—and was continuing to transform. He demonstrated that all life, as well as the climate, had once been very different from what they saw in the mid-1800s. 

Completely aside from the fact that many people's belief in God was challenged by these statements of Darwin, it was the evidence of nature's mutability that rattled many believers. How could God's creation not be perfect and changeless? Was God not perfect? Some even questioned, did God exist? The church fathers (and they were exclusively men) felt threatened. They dug in their heels and ferociously defended their erroneous beliefs. They set up an opposition that continues today among religious fundamentalists.

It should be emphasized that most religious leaders today have accepted the theory of evolution and its implications for change. Furthermore, science's understanding of the natural world now is far greater than in Darwin's time. We now are very confident of the age of the Earth and its past geological eras.

Yet today we are once again experiencing another battle between science and a powerful group that puts doubts in the minds of the populace; this time it’s made up of industrial and corporate moguls, political leaders, and fundamentalist religious clerics. 

Contemporary science has offered irrefutable evidence that Earth's climate is once again experiencing another change—definitely one for the worse. Our climate is becoming dangerously warmer and will become periodically more menacing. Why are so many people complacent or in denial of the truth? We no longer can hide behind the ignorance of 19^th century knowledge. We know it's coming, and yet we dither. 

More change blindness next time…