Humans just as vulnerable to climate change as other animals despite our use of technology, study warns

‘We may have a biased view of how species have adapted to environmental pressures’

Humans may be just as vulnerable to changes in the environment – including those caused by the climate crisis – as other animals, according to a new study that assessed genetic data from the past 45,000 years.

The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggests that the ability of humans to use tools and technology to adapt has not been enough to survive when environmental conditions changed drastically in the past.

In the study, scientists, including Yassine Souilmi from the University of Adelaide in Australia, looked for traces of “hard sweeps” in ancient and modern human genomes.