There may well be an unexpected obstacle on the path to solving the climate crisis. Experts suspect that aspects of human evolution that led to us dominating the Earth may now be preventing us from tackling global environmental challenges such as climate change.
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Why is it that, despite the threat that is becoming clearer every day, we are (still) unable to overcome the climate and, more generally, the environmental crisis that we are facing today? More and more researchers are asking this question. And biologists from the University of Maine (USA) give an answer that is, to say the least, surprising in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. They say there are key features of human evolution that could prevent our species from solving global environmental problems like climate change.
Human evolution against global warming
Work by researchers at the University of Maine shows how the human groups that have formed over the last 100,000 years have gradually learned to dominate the planet – at least in appearance – thanks to tools and techniques. Systems that allowed them to exploit more types of resources, with greater intensity and on a larger scale. Agricultural practices, fishing methods, irrigation infrastructure, energy technologies and social systems to manage it all. As a result, humanity has significantly increased its footprint on the environment. Because what scientists call the process of cultural adaptation to the environment has facilitated the spread of human groups on a global scale.
“Cultural change occurs faster than genetic evolution. It is one of the main drivers of human evolution, says Tim Waring, an evolutionary biologist, in a press release. For the last 100,000 years, this has been good news for our entire species. And all this thanks to the large amount of resources and space available.” Today we lack resources. And space. Our cultural adaptations have led to dangerous environmental problems. They are putting us in danger. They also endanger our access to future resources.
The characteristics of sustainable development
In looking for commonalities between sustainable human systems of the past, researchers have found that they tend to develop only after groups have failed in some way to conserve their resources or environment. For example, the United States regulated industrial emissions of sulfur and nitrogen dioxide in 1990, but only after they caused acid rain. This trend is problematic in terms of global warming. In this particular case, we actually need to solve the problem before the changes become too large. We don't have the right to fail.
The researchers also note that at the level of environmental protection problems, it is societies that have managed to solve these problems over the course of evolution. In order to effectively combat the climate crisis, it will likely be necessary to create new regulatory, economic and social systems at a global level. “But we don’t have a coordinated global society that could implement such systems,” explains Tim Waring. However, we can imagine cooperation agreements to address these common challenges. The problem doesn’t really exist.”
Solving false problems instead of fighting global warming
The researchers point out that this is a much deeper problem. The fact that in a world full of subglobal groups, the cultural development of these groups tends to solve problems that benefit their interests, thus delaying the solution of global problems. Worse, cultural development between groups would tend to increase competition for resources and thus could lead to direct conflict between groups or even the decline of humanity on a global scale.
“We have to take action against evolution.”
“This means that global challenges such as climate change are much more difficult to solve than previously thought,” complains Tim Waring. Not only are they the hardest thing our species has ever done. It's more than that. Because key elements of human evolution are likely to undermine our ability to solve them. To solve the world's collective challenges, we must swim against the tide. Go against evolution.”
Understanding cultural evolution to combat climate change
Additional work is required to validate this hypothesis. However, if the researchers' conclusions prove correct and confirm that human evolution tends to reject collective solutions to global environmental problems, it will be urgent to find solutions based precisely on these new, deeper insights.
To give us hope, researchers point to the encouraging example of the Montreal Protocol, which made it possible to limit the gases that deplete the ozone layer. However, to defeat global warming we must go further. Towards more conscious, peaceful and ethical systems of mutual self-governance based on market regulations and enforceable contracts. Goal: To connect groups of people all over the world ever more closely into a functional unit.