HUMANS ARE UP FOR THE CHALLENGE

WE NEED ADAPTATIONS TO BEAT CLIMATE CHANGE. FORTUNATELY, WE MIGHT BE UNIQUELY SUITED TO COME UP WITH THEM.

- DAMIEN MARTIN

What has led modern humans to world domination is not that we're the biggest, strongest, or fastest animals around. There are plenty of wild beasts that can beat us at that. What we have that they don't is superior adaptability, creative thinking, and unparalleled teamwork. We use those skills to make tools to overcome any shortfalls in our bodies. We've adapted to live just about anywhere that there's land, colonizing new habitats that other animals couldn't dream of surviving, let alone thriving, in. We owe that adaptability in large part to our brains, but also our bodies have changed to rise the challenge. Selective pressures over time have led us to walk on two feet and keep some hair on our bodies. They've also led to survival strategies. Climate change has been one of the bigger selective pressures, one that we've responded well to. As we face this current round of it, one with key differences from the past, we'll need to utilize those climate change adaptation tools once more to come out ahead.

BUILT DIFFERENT

Humans have faced climate change constantly in our history. The biggest difference this time is that we have largely brought the current climate crisis on ourselves. The distinction isn’t just a way to pass blame, but to acknowledge that this greenhouse gas-fueled climate change is happening much faster than previous climatic shifts. This means we have less time for those physical climate change adaptations in our bodies that evolved slowly over long periods. But we still have those big, strong brain muscles.