I need your opinion.?

Question

we should not worry about air pollution because through natural selection, the human species will develop lungs that can detoxify pollutants?

Answer 1

So actually, there were 2 kinds of natural selection proposed by scientists, at least what I was taught. I believe this one to make more sense.

The first is that natural selection means selection naturally. This means that suppose under the condition as stated, polluted air, those human beings who have the genes or the ability to filter it or detoxify it will be able to survive, while those who cannot will die off. Therefore, in the end, only the ones with the neccessary gene will live on and pass the gene on. Thus natural selection. In the sense of survival of the fittest.

So it's not that we will develop such lungs that detoxify pollutants. But rather those who already can will live on.

The other version would be what everyone is talking about, how we will, by and by, develop those special lungs, but that would take really really long if truly the case.

So all in all, I think there is cause to worry!!

Hope this answers your question :)

Answer 2

No. Here are four things to consider. 1) While it may well be true that we adapt, there is no way for us to know that ahead of timel and no way to know when that might be. Also, in order for that adaptation to occur, there has to be a link between that air pollution and the relative fitness of humans. This is also hard to know or to measure. Again, not a question we can answer. 2) Humans are not the only organism affected by man-made air pollutants, so that are complex effects on our ecosystem that ultiimately affect the quality of human life. 3) The human lung is not the only target of air pollution. Look up global warming. 4) Adaptation occurs slowly. Many of the things we humans are doing are causing changes to occur rapidly. This is one of the essential points in the arguments about global warming. While periods of warming and cooling are normal, the warming trend we see now is far far more rapid.

Answer 3

Evolution, does not work that way, and genetics has its limits....even the best of the genes, either modified, or evolved, will not give us super lungs, and the contamination will continua to be a problem as long as mankind is mankind (or humanity, in order to avoid an offense to sexists) exist on the surface of the planet...
We do need many more organs working other than a well functioning lung, to get rid of pollutants...its NOT a simple task, nor is it carried out only by the lungs...it is a dynamic process that involves kidneys, liver and bone marrow,,,,and many more organs...

Answer 4

Highly unlikely. Natural selection takes incredibly long times to work. For us to develop lungs like that, first someone would have to be born with a mutation that produced better lungs and have kids who he/she passed that mutation down to. That's pure random chance. Maybe it's already happened. Maybe it won't happen for a couple millenia. Maybe it's already happened but the person with the mutated gene died childless, so now we have to wait for it to happen again.

As long as air quality is just a nuisance, better lungs wouldn't convey any evolutionary advantage, so the gene wouldn't spread that far or fast. Once air quality got so bad that people started dying from it, the ones with pollution-resistant lungs would start to dominate and the gene would start to spread. But there are about six and a half BILLION people on Earth and the population is rising. Even if we got lucky and someone already had the right mutation, so the gene could start spreading as soon as the air got too bad, it would still take probably hundreds of generations--thousands of years--for the gene to spread through our whole species. Long before that happened, most people would have died from the air pollution. Granted, the ones with the mutated lungs would survive, so the species wouldn't go extinct, but there would be horrific loss of life.

Not only that, but ask yourself: What percent of Earth's current population would we need to support civilization as we know it? 20%? 10%? Even if we could keep going with as few as 1% of the population, that would still be 60 million people, and it would take hundreds of years for a gene to spread through them all. So if air quality did get so bad that humans as we exist now would die from it, civilization would probably collapse because there wouldn't be enough people left to run it.

So in other words, if pollution ever reached critical levels, relying on evolution to save us would be a really bad idea.

Answer 5

Your statement would basically be true IF the rate of increased air pollution was gradual enough for humans to adapt. It's not. Pollution is increasing faster than evolution could ever keep up with.

Answer 6

Air pollution doesn't just harm humans. It effects the entire planet/ecosystem. Numerous plants and animals that we depend on would go extinct.

Even if we were to adapt to the air pollution we would decimate other aspects of our planet and not be able survive. Everything is connected.

Of course we should worry about air pollution.

Answer 7

That kind of evolution would take a million or so years. We will run out of pollution causing fossil fuels in the next 100 or so years.

Answer 8

Not in this century, though...that's a corporal shift, i think...

To develop lungs that can detoxify polluntants would take thousands of years, if any chance

Answer 9

ok that might happen. But do you want to die because you can't breathe from all the pollution?
pollution.
meaning.
no more trees
animals.
and u can't go swimming because of water pollution.
I'm not tryin to be mean, but think of all the suffering that's going to happen.

Answer 10

If it does occur, it must be through mutation and that mutant and their offspring would be able to survive, but unfortunately for us, espacially you, well we DO really need to worry.. that human will occur in about what? 10- 1million year while they dont have anything to do with us since we already perish anyway...