This book was unsatisfying. Just too short for what it tackled. It is very clear and concise, and I feel like I have a better understanding of the issues addressed. But it seemed incomplete, didn’t really offer any conclusion or solution to the problems. Discusses how human impacts via chemical and toxic pollution, use of pesticides and herbicides, genetic manipulation of plants and war waged on germs via vaccinations and drugs, is pushing evolution in all kinds of species. Including those targeted (bedbugs, weeds, cancer, mosquitoes, etc) and those that are just bystanders- frogs, salamanders and fish that live in water collecting runoff and chemical waste, for example. Also how humans are perhaps evolving, changing in response to environmental stressors and pollutants, though this part didn’t talk about quite what I expected, and didn’t answer my questions either. There’s explanations in here about genetics, inheritance of traits, how mutations arise that may or may not benefit organisms, and why they are prevalent enough to influence a population’s evolution or not. Which happens way faster that Darwin ever surmised. It felt odd to be reading a book old enough that it didn’t deal with the biggest things seen in my lifetime. In the chapters about vaccinations and disease, it raises alarms about flu strains and MRSA. Now you’d expect of course, such a book to be talking about Covid 19. The introduction, mentioning how changing traits in stressed populations are seen far quicker in rapidly-reproducing species like houseflies and gnats, says “We won’t see the evolution of tusk-free African elephants in heavily hunted populations . . . in “contemporary” time, but we are certain to encounter plenty of chemically resistant pests and pathogens.” Wrong. This is happening right now, tuskless elephants are becoming more prevalent in the population. I remember I felt shocked when I first read about it in National Geographic several years ago- but then after a moment’s thought I wasn’t too surprised. So this book goes into details about how unsustainable our battle against insects, disease and competitive plants in our crops (weeds) can be- because they will always evolve quick enough to one-up our defenses, putting us in a worse situation, and now we are starting to suffer fallout of our own creation. (I thought for a moment the text was going to be supporting antivaxxers but it didn’t quite go that far). On the other hand, it didn’t offer any answers as to what we should do, either. That’s the part that frustrated me. Raising alarms and pointing out problems, but no suggested way forward.
Borrowed from the public library.