The famous biologist, E. O. Wilson, compared species that are able to occupy multiple habitats with those “specialized to live in particular habitats.” For instance, one kind of finch may find different sources of food, while another may be specialized to a single food source. Wilson says that the highly specialized species are more likely to decline to extinction as the environment changes.
Believe it or not, we humans are the specialized kind. We haven’t always been that way, of course. Our best trait, our inventiveness, has allowed us to mine any environment for its resources. Indeed, we still may adaptive and inventive enough to survive through the upcoming centuries.
But remember, as we ritual with ideas, not only do they evolve, but we humans evolve right along with them. Alas, evolution is not always progress. Our inventions have evolved to astonishing levels, yet we have evolved into a very specialized dependency: convenience.
Convenience does not make for good health. Convenience is good for a generation or two, but then it slowly kills the species.
Convenience is trapping us in obesity and other diseases of the sedentary life. It keeps us dependent upon non-local industry; it makes us slaves to oil; we are in debt to foreign powers; it rapes the planet; and we are just comfortable enough that we can’t get up off our couches to do something about it.