Nature & Environment

Have humans stopped evolving ?

By T.K. Randall
September 10, 2013 ·  63 comments

Attenborough's nature documentaries have made him a household name. Image Credit: CC 3.0 Mike Dixson Attenborough contends that biological evolution in humans has ended because the advances of the modern age have enabled us to raise even the weakest of our kind, even those with health problems that under any other circumstances would have prevented them from surviving. In essence, natural selection no longer applies."We stopped natural selection as soon as we started being able to rear 95–99 per cent of our babies that are born," he said. "We are the only species to have put a halt to natural selection, of its own free will, as it were. Stopping natural selection is not as important, or as depressing, as it might sound - because our evolutionary process is now cultural."

The 87-year-old also expressed gratitude for having lived in the present as he fears future generations will experience far more problems than those alive today. "I have all kinds of pleasures and luxuries that I appreciate and I'm very, very fortunate," he said. "But I think that in another 100 years people will look back at a world that was less crowded, full of natural wonders, and healthier."

Source: Telegraph | Comments (63)

Tags: Evolution, David Attenborough