Science seeks ancient plants to save favorite foods

Global warming will totally benefit those in the Northern areas.

So it might seem, but like so much of our world, there are details. The climate is a global equilibrium maintained by a large diversity of inputs and cycles. The warming we see due to greenhouse gas inputs is a perturbation of that equilibrium and when equilibriums are perturbed beyond a certain point the 'equilibrium' can be lost and they can enter into 'chaotic' behavior while seeking a new equilibrium. It is not impossible that this current global 'warming' could result in the onset of an 'ice age', for example. In the interim, as more heat, that is, more momentum, accumulates in the atmosphere and in the oceans, the 'normal' events which occur become more and more 'energetic'. Hurricanes pull more heat from a warmer sea, blow harder and faster and contain more moisture. Global distributions of rainfall change and areas previously well irrigated become dry and other areas flood with much greater frequency, in both cases damaging crops and making agriculture much less predictable. For example, tornado activity could become frequent and more powerful in the Great Plains of North America, a 'bread basket area', making both agriculture and personal safety more precarious and more frequent failed harvests. If the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation fails as it appears to be doing due to increasing fresh melt water inputs, Europe's climate will change drastically. Monsoon failures, increased and more powerful typhoon activity and other unpredictable changes will be occurring.

And nowhere is any of this being taken seriously by those who control and whose profits depend upon the status quo.

And then there is the increasing Human burden such as China and other countries seeking to create a 'baby boom' because of declines in birth rates even while population is still increasing which will increase demand even as per capita demand might decrease canceling out any half-hearted measures to reduce greenhouse gas inputs which might be forced upon the profiteers. Global climate change and Human population increase will collide and sooner not later.

And as local conditions change, massive population shifts will begin to occur among those whose local conditions have become 'unfavorable' resisted by those whose local conditions are 'favorable' but who will be faced with potentially hordes of starving Humans driven by famine and hopelessness and the diseases spurred by starvation and neglect.

Add in, then, what this article discusses which is the much reduced adaptability of our crop plants to even mild changes in what we have designed them to favor, combined with our own species' social structures' clear lack of adaptability to what is staring us in the face, and the future looks like a very 'interesting' time indeed. The 'Four Horsemen' will be loose amongst us ALL, released by our own lack of courage and unity in demanding that those who control these things that are destroying us be made accountable. And this is the GIFT we are bestowing upon our progeny, our children and, certainly, our grandchildren, cowardice in the face of wealth and power. Shou ga nai, ne...

Global warming will totally benefit those in the Northern areas. Crops will flourish. What we need though is to stop making corn the number one crop not as a source of food but for all the other items it is used for.

This is why evolution does not work. If evolution worked, we would not need to re-introduce genetic diversity into the genome.

Evolution works perfectly fine. It does not revolve around the needs or wants of one species. Evolution works much better when left unmolested. Since humans have messed with every ecosystem for profit (an unnatural concept), evolution working in it's natural way now faces man made barriers to its effectiveness.

The answer, scientists say, may be to reintroduce that genetic diversity by going back to domesticated crops' wild ancestors.

This is why evolution does not work. If evolution worked, we would not need to re-introduce genetic diversity into the genome. Evolution would take care of that all by itself. But it can't. Once we lose the genetic diversity, it's gone. So I applaud these efforts to protect the diversity.

But this is why dogs who are purebreds are often less healthy than mixed breeds. The mixed breeds have a healthy genetic diversity and can handle problems much better.

Evolution can help select from whatever already exists in the genome, but once that diversity is lost, natural selection has NOTHING to select. Natural selection is helpful only in it's ability to select the most healthy among what exists. It cannot create anything new and most mutations are negative or harmful so they do not result in more healthy animals/plants/etc.