Humanity is at an evolutionary paradox - some pathogens, cancers and pests are evolving faster than our ability to control them while valued species are evolving too slowly to keep pace with the man-made changes to their environments, a new study suggests.
Peter Gluckman, Head of the Centre for Human Evolution, Adaptation and Disease at the University of Auckland's Liggins Institute said the study found that escalating human impact on the planet has led to an evolutionary paradox.
"On the one hand some pathogens, cancers and pests are evolving faster than our ability to treat or control them; on the other, valued species - including humans - are evolving too slowly to keep pace with the man-made changes to their environments," Gluckman said.
Gluckman is one of nine authors of an international study which calls for evolutionary thinking to address societal challenges in food security, emerging diseases and biodiversity loss.
In a review published in Science Express, led by University of California, Davis and the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen, the authors argued that inattention to evolutionary principles will only lead to greater challenges such as short-lived medicines and agricultural treatments, problems that may ultimately hinder sustainable development.
Gluckman said that the rising incidence of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other non-communicable diseases has been attributed to the growing gap between modern diets and lifestyle and those of our evolutionary past.
He said that the most promising approaches to addressing this issue are likely to involve large-scale public health-education initiatives promoting increased activity levels and diets that are lower in refined carbohydrates.
While this will be beneficial across whole populations, he said that it is particularly important for young people to reduce the evolutionary mismatch before starting their families.
"Evolutionary biology provides a number of strategies that can be applied to address threats to global health, food security and biodiversity. It is important to take long-term, collaborative approaches across all areas of biology, including biodiversity, food production and human health," Gluckman said.
