Humanity evolved to cope with 30°C+ heat, says prof

[FarCenter]

Many of humanity's distinctive features - walking upright, hairlessness, the ability to sweat copiously - arose due to the fact that the place where we evolved has been scorchingly hot for millions of years, according to noted boffins.

The cradle of humanity, according to most research, was the Turkana Basin in Kenya's Great Rift Valley. Today this is a terrifically hot and arid place, but some scientists have argued that during the Pliocene and Pleistocene eras, when humanity was making its first appearance in the area, it must have been cooler and/or more wooded.

But now a crew of researchers headed up by Benjamin Passey of Johns Hopkins University say this isn't so - the Turkana area has always been cruelly hot, generally above 30°C and sometimes above 35°C, for the whole time humanity has existed.

<SNIP>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/09/turkana_heat_history/

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So with global warming, we all just have to strip down a bit?

[neverforget]

1. What about the other creatures that inhabit this planet? Do they count?

[Hello_Kitty]

4. We can eat each other, I guess. eom

[Geoff R. Casavant]

7. From an evolutionary standpoint, no.

Human genes, like all genes, evolved based on how the organism carrying them would best survive at that moment. The well-being of any other organism would be incidental.

[Geoff R. Casavant]

2. Houston in August

If ever a city is going to give up on the societal norms against social nudity, it will be in Houston, during August.

[Hello_Kitty]

6. Phoenix in August. "Dry heat" my ass.

30% humidity atop 115 degrees is a HOT motherfucker.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Well, good for humanity, what about the billions of other species?

You know, all the other forms of life we depend on for food?

I'm told there's enough space on the planet for billions more of us too.

[Warpy]

5. They could cope because they didn't have JOBS

The concept of work was completely foreign to any hunter/gatherer society that foraged for whatever there was in the area to eat and spent the rest of their time chilling out and swapping lies about the last hunt.

35C isn't all that bad if you've got water and a shady place to hang out. If it's an arid 35, it's even better.

[enlightenment]

8. Ain't that the truth.

Every word.

Especially the word 'arid'.

I despise heat (and live in Las Vegas - don't ask . . .) but I'll take 46C here over 24C in a humid place any day of the week.

We did not evolve with gills and that's what humid heat makes me feel like I should have.

[Warpy]

10. My dad always expected me to move into their house

after they were gone. It was on a barrier island in Florida and had a pool, such a deal. I sold it two weeks after my dad died.

My mother hated Florida, said it was like being buried under a pile of hot, wet, woolen blankets.

I had to agree. There is no way I'd live in that sauna. When I left Boston for someplace without those winters, I landed in New Mexico. Now I'm completely spoiled: dry heat with no bugs.

I don't have to ask about Las Vegas. I know.

[villager]

9. +1

n/t