Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It has been my privilege and pleasure throughout this topic to demonstrate
how the signs of evolutionary change are plain to see no matter where we
look on our planet. Although I have taken you to some exotic places, the
infl uence of evolution can be discovered everywhere. We do not have to
travel to the ends of the Earth—even when we stay at home we can be Dar-
winian tourists. Each fi eld, mountain, reef, and canyon reveals parts of the
Earth's long past. The consequences of evolution are all around us and af ect
our daily lives.
Only through such an evolutionary perspective can we understand the
true history of the world and of our species, and how our actions will af ect
the future of the planet. This understanding is of tremendous importance,
because everywhere in the world that our species has gone we have changed
the environment and reduced the world's ecological and genetic variation,
closing of our options for the future.
At the same time, our own activities have produced evolutionary changes
in our own species that we are only just on the verge of comprehending. We
must understand the changes that we have brought about in ourselves and
in the entire living world if we are to meet the immense challenges of human
population growth and environmental degradation in the years and cen-
turies to come. We must see the world through evolutionary eyes. If we let
ignorance and the denial of evolution prevail, we are in danger of destroying
the living fabric of the world that we treasure and that sustains us.
