Chapter 12, Problem 1SL

Burning Question 12.1 explains why an organism cannot be adapted to all environments. Even humans cannot live in all parts of the world. However, technology allows us to live in habitats that would otherwise be deadly. For example, the cold temperatures, low oxygen level, and lack of food on a high mountain would soon kill an unclothed man. However, the same man could survive indefinitely in the same location if he had a warm house and clothing, breathed from an oxygen tank, and grew food in a sophisticated greenhouse. Are human technologies the products of natural selection? Is a human who lives in a harsh environment “adapted” to that environment, even if he must use technology to survive? What areas of the world might be especially difficult to inhabit, even with the use of current or potential future technologies? Why?