Climate

 “Survival of the fittest.” Those best adapted to survive under certain circumstances will reproduce and pass their genes to offspring. What exactly does that mean for humans? The most physically strong? The most stereotypically beautiful by a given culture’s standards? The wealthiest? The smartest? The most self-promoting? Evidence of the “typical” human doesn’t support any of these ideas.

The theme of the annual Ecological Society of America meetings this year was climate change. One talk I listened to really stands out in my mind. Tom Stohlgren (USGS Fort Collins) gave a thought provoking talk about the role of invasives  species (harmful plants, animals and diseases from other countries) in shaping the world we live in.

Four years ago, Worldwatch in their wonderful but now defunct magazine, published a few interesting numbers. In the mid-1990s there were 385 bicycles per 1000 Americans (US), the number in Germany was 588 per 1000 Germans and in Holland .... 1000 bikes per 1000 Dutch people of course! Bicycles in Europe are considered a transport vehicle just like a car and are treated as such unlike in most of the continental US.