2 fer Tuesday, by David Quammen

This photo greeted me at the mailbox one day on the cover of my National Geographic Magazine. Of course I shuddered, said "WHAT?" aloud and quickly thumbed to the article to find almost a whole page devoted to the word "NO".

What followed is one of the best written common language descriptions of the fundamentals of evolution I've ever read. I think it should be a must read for everyone alive. The article can be found at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0411/feature1/

Also by this same talented science writer, was an article in Harper's that was so thought provoking that it has never left me. The article was titled Planet of Weeds and it painted a picture of the future world dominated by species that are widely adaptable and weedy. Pandas are too specialized and unable to adapt to be weedy or ever more widely populated. Russian Thistle and Starlings thrive on disturbance and can live almost anywhere, so they are more likely to see the future than something that only lives in undisturbed forest.

The author then holds up the mirror and defines us as the consummate weed. It is hard to argue otherwise. We can live from the arctic to the tropics, the rain forest to the desert, and we do a pretty good job of sequestering resources. Yup,,, we are the best weeds of all.

Harper's isn't as generous as National Geo., and you gotta subscribe to read ten year old magazine articles online {insert= eye roll}, but here is an excerpt:

Do you see Homo sapiens as a likely survivor, I ask him or as a casualty? "Oh, we've got to be one of the most bomb-proof species on the planet," he says. "We're geographically widespread, we have a pretty remarkable reproductive rate, we're incredibly good at co-opting and monopolizing resources..."

I did find the full text posted as some kind of eco-sermon at this "interesting" site: http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org/e-sermons/weedplan.html