5 weeks that changed the world…
In 1835, at the age of twenty-six, Charles Darwin arrived in the Galapagos Islands, where he spent a mere five weeks and only seventeen days on land, gathering specimens and sketching them. Even though he published his findings 20 years after visiting the islands, he wasn’t the first to comprehend the principles of natural selection, but he was the first to publish in 1859.
The Origon of Species by means of Natural Selection
or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life
With the exception of marine mammals, very few mammals can survive on the dry, nearly arid Galapagos Islands. Most of the terrestrial animals are birds and reptiles, including endemic marine iguanas and giant tortoises. The animals had to adapt to the slightly different conditions on each island due to the extreme difficulty of surviving. Darwin used finches, which are small birds that eat seeds, as an example. The birds’ beaks adapted to the seeds that the various plant species produced on different islands. There are numerous instances of adaptation, and as a species becomes more specialised, it eventually splits into subspecies and then distinct species.
Natural selection is currently taking place in the world, but unlike in the past, most of nature is unable to adapt to the current circumstances. This is because nature lacks the mechanisms necessary to deal with harmful substances and chemicals created by humans, like plastic and endocrine disruptors. Humanity is failing to preserve life, and nature is dying. Even if we stopped polluting right away, the majority of nature might not survive the next 20 years because of the current level of toxicity in the world.
There is no biological need for us to change our wicked ways because those who possess the wealth, power, and authority to bring about change are not suffering; this includes most people in high-income countries. The issue is that it will be too late to save the environment on land and the marine life in the oceans when those individuals or organisations with the power to effect change begin to suffer severely.
In essence, human survival and self-preservation are being harmed by natural selection because most do not think there is actually a problem. We have already lost 70% of nature since 1970 and 90% since 1900; over the next 20 years, it will be 90% and 99%, respectively. Humanity is part of nature; we cannot survive if it is destroyed.
There is still time to halt the process, restore biodiversity, and stop climate change, but first we must stop the devastation of ecosystems, overexploitation of the natural world, and pollution from toxic chemicals, plastic, and partially combusted carbon.
What will it take to change the world after almost 200 years since Darwin was in Galapagos?
bioclimatic climate change; https://lnkd.in/ev6_2cXN
www.goesfoundation.com
Darwin research station, Santa Cruz, Galapagos