"and the most dangerous of all animals is the human animal"
The only known animals that has been known to kill other animals as well as it's own kind for sport.

Nice to have friends in high places.

I do not think that evolution will play a significant role in our overconsumption/overpopulation within the foreseeable future (100+ yrs). We are too far down the road to depletion of major essential resources, and we simply do not have the time needed to physically evolve into a more adaptive specie. Obviously, my position likely doesn't sit well with many on the forum, but I base it on good evidence.

Even those who intellectually accept the validity of limited carrying capacity usually assume that they will not be around when that point is reached. My position is that point has aready been reached. The world's human population is probably beyond the natural sustainable level by a factor of six. In other words, on a truly sustainable level the world possibly could support roughly 1.3 billion humans. The current population is closing in on the 7 billion mark. The implications are obvious.

The rapid rise in the cost of energy, food and important raw materials over the past two years is evidence that we are running up against natural barriers that cannot be breached with technology. Our copious volume of waste materials is overwhelming the ability of the environment to absorb it and recycle it back into the system. We have depleted once productive agricultural lands through over production, over fertilizing and over irrigation resulting in deserfication. Potable water sources are either being exhausted or contaminated beyond repair. The rain forests, the very lungs of the world, are in serious decline. The list is virtually endless, but the end result is clear - and it is happening at and increasingly rapid pace.

I do know that we as a species have and are causeing great damage to the enviroment we live in I still beleive if mankind has any chance at all it will come through evolution.
And though I agree with most of your post, I think that in the future mankind
"the strong ones" will adapt and to adapt to new situations nature must play a roll in evolution for the survival of the species.
Mankind has survived the ice age, stone age, and others I don't think they will just lay down.
If that happens the Earth will shake off the human race like a dog shaking off fleas.
But As I said I beleive Mammels as well as mankind will make it thru evolution :and adaptation.:cool

I certainly have no wish to deny hope that humans will eventually become truly intellegent to the point that they are willing and able to live within the bounds of nature rather than being a cancer on the life of earth. I spent many years living with and studying hunting and gathering societies in northern Alaska. That experience gives me hope that we may yet avoid total self-destruction. However, if we do life as we now know it will be radically changed. There will be far fewer of us, and we will have much less in the way of material wealth. The concept of perpetual "growth" will be replaced by small scale sustainability. We will become far more locally focussed, and globalism will fade from memory. The world will become real to us, meaning we will become familiar with growing food, occasional hunger, living without air conditioning and automatic central heat, traveling at the pace of a walk and experiencing being truly tired at the end of each day. Mostly, we will come to realize that we must work together in order to survive and continue. Goint it alone is a sure dead end.

I agree with that post.
When you were in Alaska, did you have achance to study the Wolf and the polar bear?
What is your opinion of the current polar bear situation.
Oh, I've heard news some say this some say that,but since you were in Alaska what's your opinion?

I have had interactions with both polar bears and wolves, although I am not a wildlife biologist. Among my many sins, I am a cultural anthropologist. Insofar as polar bears are concerned, their future looks pretty bleak. They are adapted for living on ocean ice, although they do come ashore to have young. As the polar ice shrinks they are being forced to swim much longer distances and finding more difficult hunting conditions for seals. The sub adult bears are particularly at risk, because they do not have the strength to swim long distances. These bears cannot simply move ashore to find food, because they are so specialized. There is a good chance that polar bears will become extinct within the next few decades. Interestingly, my closest contact with a polar bear was when, unbeknown to me, one followed me when I was walking across the sea ice while hunting seals. I had seen them at a distance on a number of occasions, but this one got fairly close. My Eskimo hunting partner shot it before I actually saw it.

I have had many close encounters with wolves, including having them approach within a few feet of me. They are facinating creatures. I never felt any sense of threat at the time but rather a wary curiosity. I have had wolves follow my dog team while traveling and even walk up to my tent when camping in the summer on a river bar. I am happy to say that I never shot a polar bear or a wolf during my years in Alaska. Wolves are more adaptable than polar bears and likely will survive at least a mild version of global warming.

I kinda think the polar bear is going to be like the black rhino one day people will just stop talking about them.
I have always been facinated by wolves, I read some where that their social structure hasn't changed hardly at all.
Alpha wolf at the top omega wolf at the bottom.,the pack always works as a team when hunting prey.

Wolves are facinating animals. They feed mostly on large game (elk, deer, caribou, moose) and usually hunt as a pack (3-to-7 members, although I have seen as many as 14 wolves in a pack). They have a social system that is efficient and self-supportive. In each pack there is an alpha male and alpha female who dominate the breeding. Other pack members participate in caring for and training pups. I have seen wolves pull down an adult moose, but I have also seen wolves be seriously injured in such hunts. Wolves have a much different temperment than domestic dogs and do not make good pets or sled dogs.

Is it true that all domestic dogs come from the wolf? Iread that somewhere.
Also I never did beleive that old stuff about the "lone wolf" who stays alone cause he likes it, I beleive most wolves want to belong to a pack.

I wonder what animals think.