Reference: Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008

A global warming article in the Bangkok Post raises the alarm that climate change is causing mass extinctions of species and is expected to devastate the biodiversity of the planet (Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008). I would like to remind the concerned individuals that there have been many epochs of climate change in earth's history and the data in the fossil record show that in every occurrence of climate change there has been, not a reduction, but indeed an explosion in the number of species. In fact, these data have caused biologists to revise Darwin's theory of evolution to include the idea that environmental stress causes biodiversity and that mutations occur in spurts when life is forced to adapt to changing circumstances. In any case, evolution is the way of Mother Nature and extinctions and mutations are part of that process. It is unlikely that She needs human beings to micromanage evolution for Her.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand