Evolution at Work

One thing about humans as a species seems to be that we often cannot learn a damned thing:

Just as the heavy use of antibiotics contributed to the rise of drug-resistant supergerms, American farmers’ near-ubiquitous use of the weedkiller Roundup has led to the rapid growth of tenacious new superweeds.

There is nothing about this story that was not foreseeable by anyone with a basic education in science.

But every industry assumes that they are different and that they can ignore science. The farmers were no different.

Farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. “What we’re talking about here is Darwinian evolution in fast-forward,” Mike Owen, a weed scientist at Iowa State University, said.

Part of this may be due to the fierce dedication to scientific illiteracy of a certain number of the religious and political interests in this country, for if you and your neighbors think that evolution is a fraud, then the point that, if you apply the same pesticide or herbicide over and over again, that the pests and weeds will develop a tolerance for the stuff will escape you. You won't be able to see past the marketing hype of Monsanto. You'll think that if a little application of a weed-killer is good, a heavy application is better.

But sooner or later, a weed (or pest) develops a tolerance for the chemicals used to kill it. And then there is that huge ecological niche for weeds that is now empty and the poison-tolerant weed fills it, as rapidly as propagation allows.

Monsanto and their ilk, of course, have a vested interest in ignoring the way evolution works. They'll eventually develop another weed-killer that works as well as Roundup. And the cycle will repeat itself.

Because we will have learned nothing from this.