Humans and Adapting to the Environment, Essay Example

Natural selection refers to the process in which humans who possess traits that are advantageous for reproduction within a particular environment procreate more for the subsequent generation, which enhances the proportion of their genes over a protracted period of time in the population gene pool (). This process is the primary mechanism that drives evolutionary change, and it has been touted as the most significant concept in the field of biology. The human body promptly responds to shifting environmental and external stresses in a litany of cultural and biological ways, as it retains the capacity to acclimatize to a vast array of temperatures and humidity levels. When individuals travel at high altitudes, for example, their bodies are able to adjust so that cells still get ample oxygen. Physiologically, human bodies also respond in a variety of ways to other external and internal stresses including water and air pollution, overcrowding, and various viral or bacterial infections. The capacity of humans to quickly adapt to a variety of environmental conditions has rendered it possible for them to thrive in almost every region spanning the globe, including in arctic wastelands, the tundra, deserts defined by harsh climate, and densely-populated urban centers that are wracked by high concentrations of pollutants.

Some humans exhibit behaviors that appear ill-suited to their current environments but could have possibly been advantageous in environments in the past. Indeed, recent alterations to human existence have resulted in the germination of certain human traits within the modern-day environment. This fact manifests due to the fact that human cognition evolved quite gradually, so they  have not been able to effectively adapt to environmental changes that took place recently.