08.07.09
GW and (micro)evolution
First Comes Global Warming, Then An Evolutionary Explosion
In a matter of years or decades, researchers believe, animals and plants already are adapting to life in a warmer world. Some species will be unable to change quickly enough and will go extinct, but others will evolve, as natural selection enables them to carry on in an altered environment.
by carl zimmer
I am surprised at the dogmatic rigidity of Zimmer, who can’t distinguish microevolution from ‘evolution’ proper.
It is dangerous to not distinguish the two, because periods of environmental stress or transition are often taken as evolutionary by Darwinists when all we get is microevolution.
We have had a commentary here on Lovelock’s Gaian version of that fallacy. It is important to be wary of Darwinists here, because a hidden strain of apocalyptic thinking lurks in their wrong-headed idea of evolutionary mechanism.
Carl Zimmer said,
August 7, 2009 at 10:30 pm
The scientists I spoke to for this story are all evolutionary biologists. They work in departments of evolutionary biology. There is not some other department of “evolution proper” across campus. This is a story about evolution. That’s not me being rigid. That’s just me stating the obvious.
Darwiniana » Zimmer comment and response said,
August 8, 2009 at 4:26 pm
[...] Comments Heresiarch on Huffpost, crackpot medicine, and crackpot–sociobiologyCarl Zimmer on GW and (micro)evolutionDarwiniana » Don’t be intimidated by Darwin thugs like Sam Harris on The strange case of [...]