Meat eating as an evolutionary advantage:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120420105539.htm

Dasa, put this in your pipe and smoke it🙂

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120420105539.htm

Dasa, put this in your pipe and smoke it🙂

How successful of an evolutionary strategy is it for a species to grow without restraint, overburden his environment, destroy his ecosystem, and make his planet into an uninhabitable wasteland? We see the same process throughout history on a small scale as various island cultures destroyed their environment, which then caused their population to dramatically crash. Except now that scenario is being enacted on a global scale. It may have given humanity a short term evolutionary advantage, but it will spell his doom in the long run.

Originally posted by rwingett
How successful of an evolutionary strategy is it for a species to grow without restraint, overburden his environment, destroy his ecosystem, and make his planet into an uninhabitable wasteland? We see the same process throughout history on a small scale as various island cultures destroyed their environment, which then caused their population to dramaticall ...[text shortened]... given humanity a short term evolutionary advantage, but it will spell his doom in the long run.

how silly.......

Originally posted by rwingett
How successful of an evolutionary strategy is it for a species to grow without restraint, overburden his environment, destroy his ecosystem, and make his planet into an uninhabitable wasteland? We see the same process throughout history on a small scale as various island cultures destroyed their environment, which then caused their population to dramaticall ...[text shortened]... given humanity a short term evolutionary advantage, but it will spell his doom in the long run.

And the solution to your vision of apocalyptic desolation is ...not to eat meat? Or maybe to exist in a third world communistic cave-dwelling 'harmony', where everyone 'having all things in common' may technically mean you being allowed to shag your cohabitant's wife, but her lack of teeth and excessive bodily hair actually serve more as an effective solution to over-population.

Originally posted by pete3246
how silly.......

I don't think his argument is a bit silly. It has the ring of truth. Time will tell if we think our way out of our present predicament. If we don't think hard about it, we will follow the Neandertals. And it is not just about eating or not eating meat. That is only a minor blip on the destruction and extinctions humankind is causing.

Originally posted by pete3246
how silly.......

Do you think the earth can support an infinite number of people?

Originally posted by divegeester
And the solution to your vision of apocalyptic desolation is ...not to eat meat? Or maybe to exist in a third world communistic cave-dwelling 'harmony', where everyone 'having all things in common' may technically mean you being allowed to shag your cohabitant's wife, but her lack of teeth and excessive bodily hair actually serve more as an effective solution to over-population.

We have been banished from Eden forever. There is no going back. Whether we like it or not, we are stuck with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.

Originally posted by rwingett
Do you think the earth can support an infinite number of people?

no...but an infinate number of people on earth doesn't come from eating meat.

Originally posted by pete3246
no...but an infinate number of people on earth doesn't come from eating meat.

Did you look at the article from the OP? At least I glanced at it.

She is careful to emphasize that their results concern human evolution. The research is about how carnivory can have contributed to the human species' spreading on earth and says nothing about what we should or should not eat today in order to have a good diet.

Always worth reading to the end before commenting.

Originally posted by rwingett
Did you look at the article from the OP? At least I glanced at it.

It is quite simple, if meat eating has enabled a bigger brain then it may be responsible for getting our species to the next habitable planet, or we could have carried on gullumping about he place until the sun gobbles us up. At least this way we have given the seed of this planet a fighting chance.

Originally posted by kevcvs57
It is quite simple, if meat eating has enabled a bigger brain then it may be responsible for getting our species to the next habitable planet, or we could have carried on gullumping about he place until the sun gobbles us up. At least this way we have given the seed of this planet a fighting chance.

I don't think you're going to have to worry about the sun gobbling you up. We'll do that to ourselves long before then. Your time would be much better spent in keeping this planet habitable.

The idea that we can just find ourselves another planet is an impossible quest. Every technological society will develop the ability to destroy itself long before it develops the ability to engage in space travel. The reason why we ourselves are not visited by spacefaring alien races is that they too will have destroyed themselves before gaining the ability to leave their planet.

Originally posted by rwingett
I don't think you're going to have to worry about the sun gobbling you up. We'll do that to ourselves long before then. Your time would be much better spent in keeping this planet habitable.

The idea that we can just find ourselves another planet is an impossible quest. Every technological society will develop the ability to destroy itself long before i ...[text shortened]... hat they too will have destroyed themselves before gaining the ability to leave their planet.

I would rather go out with a man made bang than a slow death by solar, we should pick up our game and take the sun out first, and as a bonus there would be no global warming.

Seriously how can you look at the technological innovations of the last 2 to 300yrs and claim with any certainty that we will not attain interstellar travel before we destroy ourselves rwingett the negative.

Originally posted by rwingett
It may have given humanity a short term evolutionary advantage, but it will spell his doom in the long run.

Can you give an example of an island where the population was wiped out?

Originally posted by twhitehead
Can you give an example of an island where the population was wiped out?

That would be Easter Island. You see any natives there now? Easter Island had a population of around 50,000 at its peak.