The Incredible Human Journey (58 page)

But in some ways we’re different from the Gravettians. Very few hunter-gatherers remain in the world today. In the developed
and the developing world, most people are settled, and there are billions of us on the planet. There’s not much room for
people displaced by rising sea levels or failing crops or lack of water,
²
but while our settled existence may make us less flexible, we surely have the capacity to come up with global solutions to
the challenges ahead.

For instance, we can each, individually, aim for more ‘low-tech’, less energy-hungry lifestyles, but we need a worldwide,
cooperative effort to tackle the problems of climate change. And any such plan needs to make economic sense. We could end
up spending a vast amount trying to shave a fraction off the global temperature increase, whereas that money could be better
spent now in developing countries, which are also likely to be hit hardest by the effects of climate change. Political scientist
and ‘Skeptical Environmentalist’ Bjørn Lomborg points out that every person in the developing world could be guaranteed access
to clean water and education for half the predicted cost of implementing the Kyoto Protocol. Cutting back hard on CO
₂
emissions
may not be the most beneficial approach, for us and future generations; we may be better off investing in research and development
into renewable forms of energy, and in supporting developing countries.
³

I think it would be fascinating, but probably quite scary, to come back in 200,000 years’ time and see how our descendants
are doing. I do hope we manage not to wipe ourselves out, and I’d like to think that we’ll find a way to mitigate the damage
caused by climate change and develop new technologies that mean we’re not still pumping out such vast amounts of CO
₂
. It will
require far-sighted and magnanimous politicians to achieve this. I hope that we’ll learn to look after our environment better,
and our own Palaeolithic bodies. And, of course, it would be lovely to think that all our achievements in literature, music,
art and science will be passed on and built upon by future generations. I think the lessons of the past give us grounds for
optimism. We are, after all, survivors. But perhaps the near future will be less rosy, and our civilisations will crumble.
Our descendants might eventually be forced to go back to the ways of the ancients, to become hunter-gatherers once again.

Who knows? Stephen Jay Gould said, ‘Life is a copiously branching bush continually pruned by the grim reaper of extinction.’
⁴
But I don’t think the human lineage is about to get pruned just yet.

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