"How We Evolve"

Our species really does not realize what we are doing to our environment, our world and ourselves! Phelan’s fear that humans are self-inflicting extinction is a fear that all humans should be aware of. Thinking about “Just Add Water”, other articles we have read and now this one, I have come to the conclusion that everything such as pollution, climate change and evolution starts off slow but once it ignites going its hard to put out the fire. Throughout this article Phelan talks about how evolution and genes have changed blah, blah, blah. That really isn’t the important part. When I got to Ehrlich’s quote on the last page that’s when I realized “Woah, now this is important!” “The fate of our civilization, and maybe our species, may be determined by the next five generations. So I don’t really give a shit what’s happening to our genetic evolution.” (202)

In combining Erlich’s and Phelan’s ideas, I understand where I want this article to take me. Over the past few days, I have realized that we have no control over what is going on in our planet. Everyday all of us are destroying it more and more. The ozone layer started to disappear slowly from human abuse throughout thousands of years but the more we pollute the air the faster our ozone layer is going to decay. That is where we can compare evolution. Evolution started very slowly then took off which Phelan believes eventually led us to the human race. Our genes mutate themselves in regards to our change in environment. For example, people that live in colder climates may grow more hair because their body recognizes that they need more warmth. Erlich doesn’t “give a shit” about this though because he believes that our change in our environment is happening to fast for our genes to even grasp and then eventually mutate for our well-being. I agree. We don’t have enough time for our body to take control and save us from this world we are destroying. If we physically don’t do something about it the future generations are… well, screwed. We need to be like Ray! Although our environment has changed so fast around us that we haven’t had time to accept or realize what took place, we need to now be like Ray and realize! In my mind think in 3 R’s. Be like Ray, Realize, Reconstruct!