For Anyone Inclined To Caricature Environmental History

Ahead Of Me Lies The Familiar Litany: Weakening Of The Heart, Hardening Of The Arteries, Increasing Brittleness Of Bones, Decreases In Kidney Filtration Rates, Lower Resistance Of The Immune System, And Loss Of Memory. The List Could Be Extended Almost Indefinitely. Evolution Seems Indeed To Have Arranged Things So That All Our Systems Deteriorate, And That We Invest In Repair Only As Much As We Are Worth.

Biology Is The Science. Evolution Is The Concept That Makes Biology Unique.

Australia Is The Most Isolated Continent.

But This Was The Only Way Of Life That Humans Knew For Their First 6m Years On The Planet. In Giving It Up Over The Past Few Thousand Years, We Have Lost Our Vulnerability To Disease And Cold And Wild Animals, But We Have Also Lost Good Ways To Bring Up Children, Look After Old People, Stave Off Diabetes And Heart Disease And Understand The Real Dangers Of Everyday Life.

With The Rise Of Chiefdoms Around 7,500 Years Ago, People Had To Learn, For The First Time In History, How To Encounter Strangers Regularly Without Attempting To Kill Them.