The Era of Evolutionary Governance

Article Symposium.21 The Era of Evolutionary Governance Walter Truett Anderson World Academy of Art and Science USA The theme of evolutionary governance is arising intervene in the survival or reproductive selection of life often in the public discourse now- usually either in forms, either directly by activities such as selective regard to some aspect of biotechnology, or in connec- breeding or indirectly by modifying ecosystems. This tion with our modifications of ecosystems through cli- may (or may not) involve formal institutions of govern- mate change and other interventions. It is a favorite ment. The word "govern", from the Greek root kuber- subject of science fiction writers who weave marvelous netes, refers to steering or guidance, and not exclusively tales about future worlds and beings shaped by human to public policy; the actions of a farmer plowing a field artifice, and it frames the controversy between those or a couple planning a family may have evolutionary who welcome such power as somehow a part of human impacts. But now more and more of the activities with destiny and those who see it as unnatural, dangerous evolutionary impacts are entering the public arena, and even sacrilegious. becoming matters of political concern and controversy In this paper I intend to explore some aspects of leading to legislation, court decisions or global treaties.1 evolutionary governance present and future. But first I The concept of evolutionary governance sprang at need to point out that evolutionary governance has not me full-blown out of the pages of a 1968 issue of the only a present and a future, but a past- and a long one. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, in which I read a pas- Human beings have manipulated the breeding of other sage from a book (1957) by Julian Huxley. Sir Julian- first species and modified ecosystems for many thousands director-general of UNESCO, grandson of Charles of years- and what we are experiencing now is a disturb- Darwin's colleague T. H. Huxley- declared in no uncer- ing new encounter with an old dimension of the human tain terms: experience, one that people in the past either over- It is as if man had been suddenly appointed man- looked or regarded as simply a matter of improving on aging director of the biggest business of all, the busi- nature. This is shaped by a convergence of two develop- ness of evolution- appointed without being asked if he ments: (1) a rapid increase in human ability to manipu- wanted it, and without proper warning and preparation. late the genetic evolution of species and to modify What is more, he can't refuse the job. Whether he ecosystems, and (2) an increasing body of information wants it or not, whether he is conscious of what he is about the impacts of human action, especially in regard doing or not, he is in point of fact determining the to large-scale (including global-scale) ecological changes. future direction of evolution on this earth. That is his These force us to recognize the reality of evolutionary inescapable destiny and the sooner he realizes it and governance for the first time in human history- a recog- starts believing in it, the better for all concerned.2 nition that transforms our understanding of humanity's I cannot recall precisely what was my reaction to relationship to the Earth. It is an end of innocence. this statement. I had never heard such an assertion As a preliminary definition of evolutionary gover- before, and I was not altogether sure what it meant. I nance, I will identify it as any activity- deliberate or inad- was probably put off by its hearty masculine-by-prefer- vertent- by which human individuals or organizations ence language (this was about the time when we were Journal of Futures Studies, November 2005, 10(2): 21 - 34 Journal of Futures Studies becoming careful about that) and, since I was and fruit stones to supply familiar food for the deeply involved in the environmental move- Spanish settlers. One of those plants, sugar ment, offended by its assumption that it was all- cane (which had first been introduced to right for people to meddle with nature. But Europe by returning Crusaders) eventually there was something about its sense of convic- became a major commercial crop in the West tion and urgency that stayed with me. Indies. Meanwhile, the Spanish contribution to Some years later, in the mid-1970s, I the evolutionary project was carried westward began to understand at least a part of what by missionaries to Mexico and California who Huxley had been getting at -- and also to under- established crops of citrus fruits, figs, dates, stand something about the history of my own grapes, olives and alfalfa - all newcomers to the country that had been omitted from my educa- Western Hemisphere. tion. The English colonists who settled along the Atlantic seaboard also brought plants with them, and by the early 17th century the gardens The American Episode in Evolution of Massachusetts were growing cabbage, I was, at that time, writing an introductory turnips, spinach, peas and beans descended text book on American government, to be from seeds brought from England. In the fol- organized in three parts: history; government lowing century, Benjamin Franklin found many and politics; and public policy. useful vegetables and grains during his travels in My research for the first part included Europe, and Thomas Jefferson, experimenting works of "natural history" as well as the history with plants at his home in Monticello, imported of people and institutions, and it was there- in not only food crops but also Lombardy poplars books about the American experience with and silk trees. Animals as well as plants figured plants and animals and soil and water systems- prominently in the project. Among the passen- that I began to form a new understanding of my gers on the famous voyage of the Mayflower country's origin. I had known that the early were pigs and sheep and cattle, as well as Americans came from Europe and created new moths stowed away in woolen clothes. institutions and, eventually, a new nation. But I At the same time that new plants and ani- had not known that they also created new mals were being imported and bred, native ecosystem- indeed, rebuilt the land and trans- species- particularly those considered haz- formed its flora and fauna- and altered the terri- ardous to people, crops or domestic animals- tory. were being battled (sometimes to extinction) by They didn't know they were governing settlers. The young federal government also evolution, of course. The remodeling project undertook extensive programs of cutting inter- was well underway before Darwin was born. state canals, dredging coastal harbors and lay- But in another sense they did know what they ing out roads through the fields and forests. All were doing. They were transplanting European of this added up to a massive and irreversible civilization to the New World, and to do that transformation of the Eastern seaboard. they had to transplant the various life forms And, as settlement spread westward, so necessary to European-style agriculture, and to did what some have called the "biological colo- shape the land and water systems to make nization" of the American continent. Forests them more hospitable to farms, cities, and com- were cleared and fruit trees planted, fields merce. They were carrying out a large-scale plowed for farms, weeds and predators con- project of directed evolution - not following any trolled, domestic animals bred. In California, the single master plan, yet with a clear social con- most rapid changes of all took place following sensus on what needed to be done. the 1849 gold rush, as settlers by the thousands That project began soon after the discov- reproduced the familiar pattern of introducing ery of America. On his second voyage domestic species and exterminating native 22 Christopher Columbus carried seeds, clippings, ones, and also permanently altered the terrain The Era of Evolutionary Governance of the gold country by methods such as One well-documented transition from hydraulic mining which washed away entire hill- food-gathering to plant agriculture took place sides. about 10,000 years ago at the north end of the All this, I learned later, was not a deviation Dead Sea. The people who inhabited that from the earlier course of human events. The region were an advanced civilization who American transformation only took place more already had well-built houses and a sophisticat- quickly and happened at a relatively recent ed social structure, and tools such as flint sickles stage of history- and is therefore better-docu- and stone mortars and pestles that they used to mented than the transformations of other conti- harvest and process grains. Then, as the climate nents by other peoples, centuries earlier. in the region became hotter, they made the I learned also that North and South transition to planting grain and cultivating it. America had been extensively remodeled by The warmer climate favored the annual species native populations long before the era of colo- of wild grains and legumes over the perennials. nization began. American Indians had burned The annuals had large seeds, protected inside forests to increase habitat for deer and other husks, that were able to survive the powerful favored game populations, built dams, cultivat- summer droughts and then germinate in the ed plants and- in California - even "farmed" the cool and rainy winters. Some food-gatherers native oak. observed this process and began to help it Modifying ecosystems is what people do; along each year by saving seeds when they har- it is only recently that we have begun to learn vested grains and then planting them in the the extent of it.

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