The Insanity Gene

 "The puzzle of why so many species of megafauna became extinct in such a relatively short period of time has now been solved. The clue lay in overlaying the chronology of these extinctions over the chronology of the migration of modern humans from our original African home. This is exactly what American geoscientist Paul Martin of the University of Arizona did in his 1973 research paper on ‘Prehistoric Overkill’. Other theories had been presented to explain the extinctions but none that were such a perfect fit. This means that man was the killer, or in this case an ‘over-killer’, from the very beginning."

"It may be comforting to imagine that there may have been a time when man lived in harmony with nature, but there is nothing to support this hypothesis. In fact, it is quite the opposite."

"Scientists speculate that the modern humans that migrated out of Africa may have evolved an ‘insanity gene’ that spurred them to act without care for consequences and which encouraged them to destroy all that stood in their path. It is thought that this gene was highly successful in its survival strategy as the more ruthless humans would have an advantage and therefore would be in better position to survive and reproduce. This guaranteed this gene’s transmission to our times. Identifying this ‘madness’ gene is now an active area of scientific research."

"There are some sobering considerations to be made. Having decimated other species and degraded the ecosystems that support our own life, we seriously run the risk of becoming the victim of our own design. Stanford University Ecologist Paul Ehrlich aptly predicted that “in pushing other species to extinction, humanity is busy sawing off the limb on which it perches”."



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