Climate change could bring about our next evolutionary step???

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: smithjustinb

Sure many animals will adapt very quickly and lizards have a great track record for doing so . However a lot of other animals wont make a major change over a short period of time .Sure there will be species that are at the coldest place that they can exist and will just move further north or south with the changing climate and the same goes with plants and fish . However if they are already near or at the maximum temperature they can live at where do they go .

Evolution, when it comes to climate change, would be a hypothetical planetary evolution. Many would adapt. Not just humans. So, there's no telling what new adaptations animals would get or how long it would take a lot of them to get them. The ones that won't make it will be revealing their weakness. Whales and dolphins are smart. Imagine if they adapted legs due to changing sea levels. I don't think anything is off the table when it comes to evolution.

a reply to: smithjustinb

The last time a climate change happened this quickly it killed of most of the species on the planet .

what do you mean by " next evolutionary step " ??????????????????????

and exactly what climate change ?????????????????????

because to be blunt - if you look at the diversity of climate and life on earth what evolutionary step is required to respond to climate change

I like your hopeful take on things, and why not? We are quick to cry foul, when perhaps as you said, it might be a good thing.

Ultimately it does not matter as it is here, and we must cope how we can, our best does tend to come out in the worst of times.

I disagree that evolution takes place slowly, I believe in giant leaps!

originally posted by: Meee32

originally posted by: hutch622
a reply to: intrptr

I usually enjoy and respect your replies but this has me scratching my head .Colour me dumb

Not sure why?

I had a lengthy debate the other day with a friend and he pulls out a chart of temps over the course of the earths history... Tomorrow I'll try and find it... But the past million years or so had many swings each seeming to last 100k years... Currently we're at the peak on the next one... But obviously it doesn't just shoot down it platos for a time.

In these cases it's a long time. I'm in bed now and should be asleep but I'll get the graph tomorrow, it was a very interesting one to be honest.

Here's some charts that reflect co2 levels rising. Now "they sayers" say that global warming is going to occur because of this level of co2 in the atmosphere is out of hand due to mans activity. What could happen because of that is a lot ,more scary than just a few warmer days. Its happening now, not fifty or a hundred years out.

Some want to attribute this co2 rise to stormy weather, melting ice, and droughts as symptoms of this, but others have problems with that as well. Its a big throw down and even the scientists can't agree. To bad big industry money is involved sowing disinformation around as much as the global warming "activists".

Let's put it this way, the need to change and adapt to survive is one of the primary drivers of evolution according to the theory on of the main drivers of change is the climate.

It sometimes seems to me that those who advocate against Climate Change seem to want to control the Climate like a giant thermostat. They seem to argue for Climate stagnation as though any change in climate they observe is our fault, must be stopped and will cause disaster.

How can you reconcile a static climate with a dynamic system that produces change in organisms? It seems to me to be a bit of cognitive dissonance to believe in both at once.

Naza announced their super galactic electromagnetic space ribbon in 2009 & how it is enveloping our entire solar system if not Galaxy.

I believe this is the main cause of erratic global weather patterns & could very likely be the cause of the first wave of real life Xmen (for lack of a better term)

The super heating of the oceans from more volcanoes going off than in recorded history + Fukushima will soon begin forcing all the Godzilla-esque monsters from the depths & it will be our duty to use human armies alongside the new "Xmen" to defeat them.

The Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. has an exhibit on this exact subject. Many times past glacial movements caused rapid evolution changes. Human changes 160 thousand years ago explained in good detail if you walk through. Also probably covered by tourist videos on youtube. My friend from the Canadian Embassy was surprised by all the human evolution & climate change info on the first floor. But of course the Hope diamond upstairs is the most fun for visitors. reply to: Meee32

a reply to: ketsuko

Let's put it this way, the need to change and adapt to survive is one of the primary drivers of evolution according to the theory on of the main drivers of change is the climate.

Let's not put it that way because that is ass backwards. There is no "need" to change and adapt.

Change happens through mutation. Whether or not a mutation has an evolutionary advantage depends upon the environment. Whether or not a change has an evolutionary disadvantage depends upon the environment. Life does not evolve because it wants or needs to. Life evolves because it changes.



BTW, to the OP: There are no evolutionary steps. Evolution is a continuum of change. Will climate change bring about evolution? Yes. Will it affect the evolution of humans? Probably not, since humans occupy a very wide range of climates already and are more mobile than other animals. Humans will relocate to regions that are more habitable.

originally posted by: caprellid
Evolution takes place over millions of years. even something as intangible as a slight increase in intelligence would mean preventing a huge number of humans from reproducing. I can't imagine a short-term scenario that would raise our average IQ by anything significant.

In fact, advocating for climate change in order to increase intelligence is effectively the same as a eugenics program eliminating the lower IQ folks, but with the added extreme weather to deal with.

If food is scarce due to drought or ice age, then people have to find new skills to keep warm, cool and create food. That would require developing food and water storage and management methods (grain silos, water reservoirs, stepped mountain terraces), better hunting methods (animal tracking by reading footprints, corrals, spear-tips, then farms), better clothes (animal furs/skins), transportation (boats, horses), housing and defences (timber homes, plaster, insulation, stone fires, stone walls, sanitation).

Once you are living in a city with stone walls, water reservoirs, paved streets, grain silos, farms, basic medical care, homes with central heating, you are living a better life than many are now.