Climate change and
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Alice MacBain
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rofessor Brian Cox made a fascinating observation in his first episode of Human Universe. He described how the Earth is not a perfect sphere, and so the gravitational pull from the Sun, Moon and other planets such as Jupiter cause it to wobble slightly, and, once every 27,000 years, it will “precess” and trace out a circle in the sky. This change causes a slight change in the orbit making it more elliptical, which has a knock-on effect on the point when summer and winter occur, thus affecting the climate. One place that experienced these severe fluctuations in climate is the Great Rift Valley in Africa. It had periods of intense rainfall, and great lakes would form. Then, the rain Omo I, c. 200,000 years old would cease and the lakes would dry up leaving parched land. “It’s thought that this rapidly changing environment drove our transformation from ape to man.” The proof for this can be found in the skulls of our ancestors. Starting with our early ancestors, the Homonym species Australopithecus had a brain volume of around 400cc, and was closer to ape than man. Then, they evolved into Homo erectus, whose brain volume was double that of Australopithecus. Homo heidelbergensis increased the brain size again until we reach Omo II, with a brain size similar to that of ours now. Cox states that it is one of the first skulls we could
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call a modern human. This evolution, or change in human intelligence coincided with the periods of the Earth’s past during which the orbit was the most elliptical, and the climate the most unstable. The theory, then, is that our intelligence stemmed from extreme fluctuations on the Earth’s orbit, which in itself is determined by its placement in the solar system. “The precise geography of our corner of the universe made us who we are.” What if we were not so close to Jupiter, or we were different distances from the sun and the moon? Would there have been no change in human intelligence? Or would there have been faster and more advanced changes? And, if there is going to be another change whilst humans still roam the earth, where can our intelligence go? We have reached such a pinnacle in our knowledge and understanding: we have walked on the moon; we have developed chips that hold thousands of times their size in data; we have discovered resources for energy from the fruits of the earth. And so, I wonder whether perhaps we have developed too fast and left no space for our successors. Change, I believe, is essential. Change in climate can mean change and development in human intelligence and that in itself is extraordinary, if not a little terrifying. And yet, too much change does not allow us to enjoy what we have: we are always looking for something more when perhaps what we have right now is good enough. Our world is too focused on an inconceivable future to wonder at the remarkable now. Why don't we slow this change, because, in a few thousand years, the Earth will take charge and change for us.
“The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it”- Patrick Young This quotation is both oxymoronic and highly relevant. It perfectly fits the seemingly juxtaposed relationship between our meteorological department and nature itself. However, this unpredictable behaviour can be explained by the advocates of “chaos theory”, people who subscribe to the beliefs which contradict the apparent laws of logic upon which much of western science and philosophy are based. They call into question the human ability to comprehend the operations behind reality, maintaining instead that any “natural system” is both random and determined, and thus inexplicably complicated. They would argue that the world is constantly shifting around us, responding to minute, imperceptible changes which alter the course of our reality. These forces cannot be comprehended, controlled or explained; however, one thing is certain: the root cause of any event is ultimately unknowable and impossible to predict. But do we really have so little control over the direction our lives take? While the Chinese word for “chaos” contains the root word meaning “opportunity”, most people would associate it with its Greek origin of “khaos” meaning “gaping void” and would relate it to a state of mess, possibly cross referenced with the condition of their calendar or the state of their wardrobe. However, the essence of “Chaos” for a physicist is linked to