Life Will Go On

Life is a sneaky little thing.  It manages to adapt and cling to any last thread in its quest for self-propagation.  I came across an interesting article in the NY Times today (yes that bastion of communist propaganda) about life evolving in our cities.  It looked at many species residing all around us that managed to survive and adapt and even evolve to cope with all the shit that humans have managed to throw at them.  There are fish in the Hudson that are completely immune to PCBs, a chemical that is highly toxic to just about every form of life it touches.  Then there are worms farther north near a battery factory that live and thrive in dangerous levels of cadmium.  And of course there are the countless bacteria that have become resistant to nearly every form of antibiotic we can throw at them. 

I’ll say it bluntly, but in light of these biological developments, if you still don’t believe in evolution you are a fucking idiot.

Now getting to my point, life finds a way.  Humans may have the capacity to wipe out most life on this planet, but to wipe it out entirely would take years of calculated effort.  I’m not saying that we couldn’t do it if we really tried, but if total elimination of life is our goal, humans are half-assing it.  For every toxin there is immunity; for every climate there is adaptation.  Even if the Earth were to disintegrate, I’m sure that some bacteria buried deep inside a rock would manage to survive in a dormant state until conditions were right for it to start its engines again.

Life will go on.  Something will feed off all the garbage and plastic floating in the pacific. Somehow the rats and roaches will come to enjoy 130 degree summers in New York.  Even humans, I believe, will survive.  Not 7 billion of them, but enough to muddle through a treacherous dark age.

Come to think of it, a treacherous dark age might actually be something to look forward to.  Or at least I would look forward to it as long as all the idiots, fat people, fundamentalist Christians, annoying housewives, and other people in my book of undesirables don’t survive.  One can only hope that evolution will do its duty, because no matter what, life will go on.

Reference:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26evolve.html?_r=1&ref=science