Climate Change Triggered Human Evolution?

Climate change triggered human evolution - some scientists believe that ancient climate changes acted as powerful evolutionary drivers for human beings forcing our ancestors to stand tall on two legs, grow large brains and develop other human traits. (for related reading: "was Darwin Wrong")

When you look at the environment section of the newspaper (global or local), climate change is mostly the central issue everyone is focused on. Whether rightist or leftist, both groups agreed that there is a movement of dangerous climate change all over the world that needs immediate attention.

Now deviating to a lighter side - I realized that there are also positive side effects of climate change (according to some scientist). And I want to discuss the aspect of human evolution as a byproduct of climate change.

According to a recent study posted by National Geographic, the early human species, so the theories go, was concentrated in periods marked by fluctuating environmental changes. Other theories suggests humankind emerged independently of climatic swings, with adaptations arising, for example, out of competition between or within species.

While more evidence is needed to settle the debate, experts say that the answer may lie at the bottoms of ancient African lakes. Now the challenge for researchers is to prove and find out that prehistoric shifts in climate coincides with key stages of development in the early human fossil record.

Records of ancient global climate change come mainly from ocean sediments. These suggest cooler, drier, and more variable conditions kicked in some three million years ago.

Did climate change trigger human evolution? some say yes, others no. Just like the people who believe that climate change is either man-made or independently evolving by itself with no contribution from man-kind or whatsoever. Personally, I believe that whether or not we evolved from erratic climate changes, still we should know best on how to mitigate its effects just to make sure that our environment - the world we live in - is still a safe place for our kids and for future generations. That's what we have to thank for during the prehistoric climate changes - it gave us large brains therefore we should use it to the full extent to do what we can today to save what is already at the brink of despair (our environment).

To read more about the topic posted by National Geographic, click here.