Humans are not blessed with sharp claws or fangs, we also don’t have the wings to fly, neither gills and fins to swim in the ocean. Yet for so long we can survive living in the dangerous lands, fly as high as the birds in the sky, and swim as deep as the whales in the ocean.
Indeed we are not naturally blessed with those physical capabilities, yet we have one thing exceeding any other creature on earth: intelligence. Using merely our excellent intelligence, we can adapt to any situations and instead of getting beaten we conquer them all.
Human’s adaptation ability indeed exceeds any creature on earth, and this is a good thing to us. The problem is, are we really aware of our capabilities? How do we know that we are not taking this adaptation ability to a bad thing?
Climate change has brought the conditions of this planet into a different level. We know that the climate have changed because of our actions, and it is going downfall. The problem is, do we really feel the changes since we keep on adapting to any changes? Have we adapted to the conditions brought by climate change too, so we just ignore it?
Changes In Us
Evolutionists believe we are the descendant of some ‘monkeys’, and evolution had worked its way making us modern humans. In such evolution phase, a series of adaptations should have taken place to make us as capable as we are nowadays.
But evolution and adaptation doesn’t only take place at that time. As modern human, we keep on evolving and adapting to our environment. In short, modern humans are adapting too, while slowly evolving into a better creature.
On the other hands, the climate is also changing slowly but sure. The changes in the climate, along with global warming, is caused by our activities and actions. The problem is, the changes in the climate is heading toward bad things instead of good ones.
Both we and the climate are in constant changes, although the changes in this planet’s climate are said to be our responsibilities. Carbon emission, cutting down the forest, and plastic consumption are the reasons why this planet is in this current state.
The question is, are those actions actually our way to adapt to changes, or just merely our recklessness that cause changes to the environment? Well, we know that we also adapt to those changes in the environment and evolve to conquer it.
The Race
Like mentioned above, because of our natural ability to adapt to changes, we might have adapted to the changes in our environment. It seems ironic to think about what we have done to this planet, yet we are the ones less affected since we are adapting to the new conditions too.
A study conducted by a group of researchers at Dept. Of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Canada tried to find our whether we are adapting to human-induced climate changes. The result said that we need extreme events in climate change before we consciously adapt to the conditions.
Extreme level of changes may include heatwaves or extremely cold weather. Primordial human might have not survived such conditions we usually experience in every winter and summer. But we have survived those extreme events may be many times in our lives. It proves that we however have adapted to those conditions.
However, the study also said that we are indeed adapting to the globally new conditions in our climate, such as warmer temperature and unpredictable weather conditions. Yet, we are not aware of those little changes in our body.
In other words, we will not be fully aware of the changes in both the environment and ourselves before extreme level of events occur. That’s why we seem to keep ignoring the global warming and climate change warnings.
Ignorance
The study found out that in many ways we have adapted to this planet’s current conditions. That’s why, we are not fully aware of those changes. The problem is, we are the ones causing those changes in the planet.
Sadly, because we don’t feel the changes very much, we keep on doing destructive things that slowly lead to extreme level we need to realize and fully aware of the changes. This ignorance level is so high that the majority of people keep thinking that this planet is doing okay.
If we keep on ignoring those changes, we will slowly destroy this planet. We are not the ones being affected the most by those changes, as we keep adapting to new conditions, but other organisms on this planet are.
We hope this can answer the questions about why all those plants and animals keep decreasing in numbers, while we don’t feel any significant changes in our environments. The answer is because we have adapted to it quickly and intelligently, while those animals and plants have not.
The Adaptation We Need
We, humans, are the fastest creature to adapt with our environment. So why don’t we use this ability to make this earth a better place instead of keep ignoring the changes and destroying this planet? There are many adaptation methods we can do to make ourselves useful for this planet thought.
Coastal defense, restoration to environment, and changes in consumption habits might help this planet a lot. In example, by planting more mangrove trees in our coastal areas, we can defend against ocean waves, which get bigger and bigger because of sea level rise, that may bring erosion to our lands.
Restoring our nature by reforestation might also help to stabilize the temperature of this planet. We know that the rising temperature leads to many bad things, such as melting icebergs to adaptation failure in many species of animals.
Lastly, changing our consumption habits is the most important thing to do. We cannot keep polluting this planet while hoping it’s gonna be okay. We consume a lot of fossil fuels nowadays, although alternative energy sources have been developed anywhere. We should try to look at those greener alternatives since those green energy sources are renewable.
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