Evolution hasn’t stopped

"It is more important to live for the possibilities that lie ahead than to die in despair over what has been lost". ~ Barry Lopez

Photo by Artem Shuba on Unsplash

Hello subscribers, this is the first of a two-part post. I’ve been ruminating about this topic for years and I’d love to hear your thoughts or opinions in the comments below!

Many years ago, I was driving on the 405 freeway on a hot day in Los Angeles. I’d just inherited my white 1963 Rambler Classic sedan from my great aunt. The car only had 30,000 miles, no air conditioner or functioning radio in the black steel dashboard, and I had yet to install a tape player. The traffic was bumper to bumper, stop and go and it looked like it wouldn’t change anytime soon. What to do?

I decided not to fight it but accept the fact that it would be a while before I got to my grandparents’ house in Topanga. So, to pass the time as I crawled along in the “fast lane” I started looking out the open windows. I began to notice that besides the occasional car part, broken glass, and trash, plants were growing next to the wall in the center divider; not bushes or anything, just “weeds”. I took out my journal and began to tally the surprising number and varieties of plants that managed to survive in that harsh environment of the 405 freeway. It was impressive that despite the punishment of constant exhaust, debris, and other petroleum residue, life managed to find a way to carry on in that concrete world.

When I reflect on that day on the 405 or hear about the plants and animals reinhabiting the area around Chornobyl, at old mining sites, or chemical plants it gives me hope. When I think of the number of insects and other animals like birds, gators, and sharks that have survived multiple extinction-level events, I take heart.  I firmly believe the earth is far more resilient than we give it credit for.

But that’s not what we hear these days. Tune into any media outlet and we hear a constant drumbeat of bad news being reported, posted, or shown on various media outlets and feeds. Wars, climate change, wildfires, deforestation, ocean pollution, and the list goes on.  If it bleeds it leads. It’s easy to get discouraged and think that “It’s the end of the world as we know it…”.

But, honestly, as R.E.M. said, “I feel fine”.

Well… maybe I don’t feel fine, but I feel optimistic. I don’t mean to dismiss the problems and I do feel that we need to work together to solve the oh-so-many problems out there, but it’s not “the end of the world”.

Will there be difficult times for humans ahead? Absolutely, and it’s gonna be more rough for some than others.

Will things be different? Oh, you betcha things are changing.

Will species become extinct, and ecosystems forever altered? Most likely, but that has also happened in the past.

Many scientists agree that the current rate of extinction is higher now than it has been for most of the Earth’s history and a big part of that reason lies with us, humans. However, if we take the time to look around, we can find examples of nature surviving and sometimes thriving despite or because of humans’ impacts. Coyote populations are increasing and have expanded their range in North America despite over a century of persecution.  House sparrows, foxes, squirrels, crows, pigeons, trees, vines, “weeds”, mussels, cellar spiders, ants, and rats, may not be glamorous species but serve as a few examples, testaments to nature finding a niche and filling it.

Granted, some of those species are exotic or introduced species, but if we look at the grand scope of the history of life, species have moved around naturally since the beginning of time. Seeds, insects, or other animals carried by the winds or on (or in) migrating birds can be transported thousands of miles from where they started. Species washed into the ocean from floods or tsunamis can wind up on rafts of debris that are then caught up in currents to be deposited on a distant shore. A great example of this type of dispersal is monkeys, who evolved in Africa and are now in the new world. In 1877 a flock of cattle egrets, native to Africa somehow ended up in South America, probably a result of getting caught up in strong NE trade winds.

Some will say that these are “natural” dispersals a result of some force of nature. But I contend that eight billion humans consuming resources and creating waste ARE a force of nature that species must adapt to. Evolution hasn’t stopped and natural forces are still in play, everything needs to adapt, survive, or die. This is a lesson the fauna of the Americas needed to learn when the first humans entered the “New World”.

Many say the environmental changes today are happening too fast for some species to adapt to, but what other choice do they have? Some will succeed and others will perish. I don’t mean to minimize the fact that many successful species are often introduced and succeed at the expense of other native species. But again, this has happened throughout the scope of the earth’s history.

As Jeff Golblum’s character, Dr. Ian Malcolm, in Jurassic Park, said, (and remember to read this with the classic Goldbloom cadence) “If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it’s that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh… well, there it is… life, uh… finds a way.”

Does anybody think we will eradicate house sparrows, African veldt grass or Argentine ants in North America, Canada geese, raccoons, or kudzu vine in Europe, rabbits in Australia, or rock doves in Asia? Nope. It doesn’t mean we can’t care about native species and do our best to keep them around. We should continue to create refuges or islands of habitat where the native species can exist without competition from the exotics, but that’s up to dedicated humans to maintain. Similar to how there are curators for other priceless artifacts around the world.

We humans are no exception to the need to adapt to natural forces. We have done so throughout our existence; we are the product of those adaptations. 74,000 years ago, one of the most massive volcanic eruptions in human history occurred on Mount Toba. The result was a 4–10-degree drop in global temperatures for several years, famine and death followed but we survived. For thousands of years, our ancestors lived through an ice age and subsequent sea level rise when it finally ended.

Over 125 million people were killed in the two world wars. The plague killed over 700 million people and 50 million in one year alone.  When smallpox, measles, cholera, and typhus were introduced into North America 80 – 90% of the native population was wiped out, yet here we are, survivors. We humans with our big brains and thumbs are one of the most creative, amazing species this world has managed to spawn, and as long as we don’t have some giant space rock hit our planet, we have a future, there will continue to be humans on this “bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free, its dizzying the possibilities” (thank you, John Barlow, / Bob Weir).

So, we’ll end there for now and I’m sure many are thinking, “Yeah Dean maybe there is a future for life on this planet, but what’s it going to be like for people? Who will want to live there?”

Let’s save that for next time.