The latest on human evolution from our man at New York City's
American Museum of Natural History (Dept. of Invertebrates), who
views the future with alarm. We have absorbed the Genesis myth,
Eldredge (Reinventing Darwin, p. 356, etc.) declares, accepting our
God-given role as having "dominion. . . over every creeping thing."
Thus, we stand above and apart from nature, which we continue to
exploit. The rise of agriculture and cultural traditions allowed us
to transcend local ecosystems so that we stand today 5.7 billion
strong and growing, a global species in danger of planetary and
self-destruction. Not good. Not new, either. Eldredge, as
impassioned and articulate as he is, echoes much of what the
Ehrlichs, E.O. Wilson, and other biologist-conservationists are
saying. Elsewhere there are new wrinkles, and Eldredge is good at
reprising the out-of-Africa evolutionary story, emphasizing major
weather changes as pivotal goads to evolution. One occurred 2.7 to
2.5 million years ago as East African wetlands changed to dry
savannah. That created niches for specialized vegetarian protohuman
species and other more generalized, bigger-brained species - both
descendants of Australopithecus africanus. According to the
Eldredge scenario, a second cold pulse around 1.6 million years ago
led to a more advanced hominid, Homo ergaster ("work man"), which
Eldredge believes was ancestor to the more familiar Homo erectus
species, which eventually led to us. In short, Eldredge argues that
material culture builds with each successive species and with the
ice ages begins to move at a pace that decouples biological from
cultural evolution. We can no longer count on natural selection to
do its thing because we are no longer living in small,
geographically isolated groups. Ergo, we need to forego dominion
and embrace sustainable growth, respect all flora and fauna, and
practice population control, most likely to come about with the
education and empowerment of women. Makes sense, but is anyone
outside the members of the choir listening? (Kirkus Reviews)
Overpopulation, depletion of natural resources, hunting of nonhuman
species to extinction: paleontologist Niles Eldredge questions the
long term survival of humans, given our propensity for living
beyond our ecological means. In Dominion he reviews the relation
between biological and cultural evolution, showing how the
agricultural revolution freed humans from dependence on local
ecosystems and allowed us to assert our dominion, as the Christian
Bible has it, over the beasts of the field. Unless we quickly
change our homocentric ways, we'll irretrievably destroy our own
habitat.
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