STREET DOGS
MICHEL PIREU: Masters of the planet
We have so altered plants, animals, and bacteria that to survive they have to reward us, or at least be ignored by us, writes Michel Pireu
From Juan Enriquez at Edge.org The two rules for what lived and died, over the long term, were pretty clear: natural selection and random mutation. But over the last century or two, and especially over the last decade, humans fundamentally altered these rules. Already, we largely determine what lives and dies on half the surface of the planet, where we have built cities, parks and farms. Both cornfields and beautiful gardens are some of the most unnatural places ever designed. Nothing lives and dies there except what we want, where and when we want — orderly rows of plants that please us. All else is culled. Life around us is now primarily adapted to our environment: cute dogs, cats, flowers, foods. We have so altered plants, animals and bacteria that to survive they have to reward us, or at least be ignored by us. The divergence between what nature would choose and what we choose gets ever larger. In May 2014, a team of molecular biologists led by Floyd Romesberg created a new gene...
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