July 11, 2010

Global Warming – Evolution or History?

Global warming is now inducing an abrupt and decisive

Change in the course of the evolution of life on Earth.

Is this a result of the evolution of the human species,

Our numbers and increasingly complex institutions

Reaching their apogee and then declining, with omnicide?

Or is global warming rather a historical phenomenon,

The result of particular, specific events in our history?

The fact that we are creating conditions inimical to our own

Offspring does not preclude an evolutionary process. The seedlings

Of white pine cannot grow in the shade of a forest, not even

That of their parents, the survival of the species dependent

On seedlings being able to colonize open, shade-less areas.

In transformational evolution, the total system changes due to

A development in its individual components. The unfolding is

Immanent in the properties of the objects, as when the universe

Changes because its component stars age. Innate human aggression,

Rising as it is foiled by a limited Earth could drive present trends.

In variational (Darwinian) evolution, the ensemble changes due

To a statistical variation in the distribution of individuals having

Different properties. Individual development does not play a

Role. A higher reproductive rate among ruthlessly aggressive,

Self-centered humans could drive the impending cataclysm.

Historical phenomena, on the other hand, are immediate,

Contingent, non-linear, devoid of “stages” or “progress,” and

Mostly unpredictable. The history of the dinosaurs ended

Abruptly after a meteorite hit Earth. The Nazi holocaust

Dramatically changed the course of Middle Eastern history.

The killing of one million Iraqis between 2003 and 2009, with

The displacement of more than four million from their home,

Has devastated the country, originally of 25 million inhabitants.

Is the modern West, with its advanced science and technology,

A pinnacle of culture or rather is it the epitome of barbarism?

Few predicted, in 1859, when Edwin Drake struck oil at

21 meters underground, near Titusville, PA, that so many

Uses for this concentrated form of energy would be found,

That the liquid would soon undergird a whole civilization.

The use of oil is now such that it is extinguishing life.

Few predicted, in September 2009, when workers on the

Deepwater Horizon rig drilled to 10,685 meters, in 1,259

Meters of water, that within seven months, the rig would

Explode and sink, oil from the ruptured well causing massive

Ecological damage, and changing the history of the United States.

The transition from hunting and gathering to agricultural

Societies was historical, as was the transition from agricultural

To industrial societies. The transition to oil-less societies trying

To survive despite a lack of food and water, and while lashed

By the vagaries of a de-stabilized climate, will also be historical.

History is not linear. It consists of one event after another.

We ourselves can change the path it is now poised to take.

References

Principal Reference:

Fracchia, Joseph, and Richard Lewontin, “Does Culture evolve?” in Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins. 2007. Biology under the influence – dialectical essays on ecology, agriculture and health. New York, N.Y.: Monthly Review, pp 267-296. The essay first appeared in a slightly different form as Joseph Fracchia and Richard Lewontin, 1999. “Does Culture evolve?” History and Theory, No. 38, pp. 52-78.

Other References:

Encyclopedia of the Nations: Iraq – Population, 2003, United Nations estimate.

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com. Accessed July 11, 2010.

Herman, Edward and David Peterson. 2010. “Constructive Genocides,” in The politics of genocide. New York, N.Y.: Monthly Review, pp. 29-38.

Lewontin, Richard, “Genes, Environment, and Organisms,” in Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins. 2007. Biology under the influence – dialectical essays on ecology, agriculture and health. New York, N.Y.: Monthly Review, pp 221-234. The essay first appeared in a slightly different form as Richard Lewontin, 1997. “Genes, Environment, and Organisms,” in Robert Silvers, Editor, Hidden Histories of Science. London, UK: Granta Books, pp. 115-139.

Wikipedia, 2010,

“Deepwater Horizon.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated July 9. Accessed July 11, 2010.

“Edwin Drake.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki. Updated July 7. Accessed July 11, 2010.

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