While I was away, I had assigned some final essay questions for my Introduction to Environmental Science course -- a 100-level course for non-science majors, many of whom are interested in going into K-12 teaching. One of the questions was as follows:
a) Why is
"Do you believe in evolution?"
an inappropriate question?
b) Is “Do you believe in climate change?” an inappropriate
question? Explain.
c) What factors determine whether a species will either adapt to
environmental change or end up in decline or extinct? Many believe that we are facing the 6th
mass extinction and climate change may be a major contributor to this. Why can’t species simply adapt to the new
climate conditions?
Below, I share (with permission) the response by Ms. Kayla Marinelli (a first year student) because a) I like what she had to say, b) it is relevant to the theme of this blog, and c) I want to keep the momentum up on this blog while I have time to collect my thoughts and analyze the outcomes of COP20.
“Do you believe in evolution?” is a simple, common question asked so often, yet extremely inappropriate. Evolution is not something that can be believed in; evolution is a fact. Asking if someone believes in evolution is the equivalent of asking if someone believes in gravity. Everyone believes in gravity; gravity is a concept that everyone understands and knows is relative. Gravity is taught in sixth grade science classes across the country because it is a fact, yet evolution is still in question after all of the proof that has been stated and all the information found. Asking if someone believes in evolution is putting evolution on the same level as religion. Religion is a touchy subject for some people and means different things to different individuals. Religion is something that cannot be tested nor proven; God cannot be proven to exist. There is solid, concrete proof of evolution. So why is it put on the same playing field as something that has nothing more than spiritual proof? “Do you believe in evolution” is an inappropriate question because of the countless pieces of evidence found to prove it. Evolution is a widely accepted theory in the scientific community but not commonly accepted by the general public. Evolution is not about how life began but how life evolved after it began, which not much of the public understands. The public believes that evolution means that God does not exist and that it is how the world was created. In America today, 78.4% of Americans identify themselves as Christians, 4.7% as other religions, and 16.1% as unaffiliated (Pew Forum, 2007). These statistics explain a lot about why evolution is not accepted. 83.1% of America believes in a God, which most of the public thinks evolution says cannot exist. That is false though since evolution, as previously stated, does not describe how life began but instead how it changed since evolution means ‘change.’ Many people in the public do not understand this distinction hence why they do not believe in evolution. Therefore, asking whether someone believes in evolution or not is not an appropriate question since evolution is not a belief, but a fact.
Talk about climate change is all the
rage at this moment. Climate change is
another proven fact, same as evolution, that people simply do not believe
in. Studies have shown the steady
increase in temperatures for years. Studies
have also shown the rise in sea level, which is due to the increase in
temperatures. Global warming, a cause of
climate change, is carbon dioxide and other pollutants gathering in the
atmosphere like a thick blanket that traps the sun’s heat, causing the planet’s
temperature to rise (NRDC, 2011).
Temperatures in an area may not seem like they are any different than
previous years, but the average global temperature has increased the fastest
ever recorded. The levels of emissions
being produced need to be decreased in order to save the world. Just this past November, President Obama and
Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases
down to 2005 levels by the year 2020 (CBS News, 2014). The agreement is exciting news to see
considering the fact that it may get more countries involved in helping to
lower emissions. The only problem is
that the agreement is only a promise until some actions are made to move the
project forward. Climate change is like
evolution in the way that people do not believe in it without any proof against
it. Climate change is a big problem to
biodiversity, which is the diversity among and within plant and animal species
in an environment.
There are many factors that
determine whether or not a species will adapt to a situation and survive or die
off to the point of extinction. Climate
change is a cause of the decrease of biodiversity, the increase in the
extinction or decline of species all over the world. Natural selection is a determinant of a
species being in decline. Some species
can survive certain variations of weather and if one variation is too extreme,
the other variation of species may have more survivors. The robin is a perfect example. The robin, a very common bird in
Pennsylvania, has two migrating patterns.
Some robins migrate to the South while others stay north for the
winter. The robins that stay north stay
down at the creeks and eat berries all winter while the Southern robins have
plenty to eat since they are in a warmer climate. The North robins could have problems by
running out of food, such as berries, and the South robins could have problems
with their journey down south. Depending
on if either group had any problems, one group of robins may come out on top of
the others. If there is an especially
difficult winter, the robins that stayed home will have died, then getting
selected out of the population. This
happens with a lot of species and can cause variation within a species. Variations
also occur naturally, such as DNA mutations.
The organisms can also share their genes when they migrate, causing even
more variations. In general, variation
in genes is truly the main factor on whether a species will survive; there are
just many types of variations that can occur.
Species cannot simply adapt to every climate though.
Many
scientists believe that the 6th mass extinction is coming upon us
and it is all at fault of humans, essentially.
Studies have shown that the rate of extinction used to be one species
per ten million species annually while today the rate is between one hundred to
one thousand species per a million species (Pappas, 2014). That is quite a leap, especially considering
the fact that only 0.05 to 0.2 new species per a million begin their existence
each year (Pappas, 2014). The rate of
extinction is much higher than the rate of production of new species, which means
that biodiversity is becoming smaller and smaller every single year. The climate change is a large factor
contributing to the extinction of so many species. As previously stated, species cannot just
adapt to every climate condition thrown their way. It takes generations and generations of a
species to have adapted to a certain climate, but the climate is changing far
to quickly for these species to keep up, causing them to become extinct instead
of adapting. Humans are ultimately at
blame, though, since the human species is the cause of so of the much pollution
that is causing the climate change. The
human population needs to make serious changes in order to slow down extinction
rates of species.
An Introduction to Climate Change. (2011, November 8). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climatebasics.asp
Kunkle, D. (Director) (2014, December
2). Evolution. Lecture conducted from Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA.
Obama: U.S.-China climate change
accord "historic" (2014, November 12). Retrieved December 5, 2014,
from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-china-announce-climate-change-agreement/
Pappas, S. (2014, September 8).
6th Mass Extinction? Humans Kill Species Faster Than They're Created. Retrieved
December 5, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/47733-humans-destroy-earth-biodiversity.html
Report 1: Religious Findings.
(2007, May 8). Retrieved December 5, 2014, from http://religions.pewforum.org/reports
Note: See the accountings of these visits from the students representing the American Chemical Society: http://www.studentsonclimatechange.com/student-blog/jess-nina-hurricane-al-touches-down-at-cop201 and http://www.studentsonclimatechange.com/student-blog/will-the-us-kerry-some-responsibility.
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