3w ago

With Europe getting warmer due to climate change, how long do you think it would take to reativate the recessive genes that make for higher melanin production?

Kind of a shitpost fyi, but since all humans initially had dark skin (more melanin) and only slowly got fairer skin (less melanin) in regions with less UV radiation in the northern hemisphere, would this also be reversable?

How long does it usually take to see these changes in mammals? Probably thousands of years right?

I mean it would kind of solve racism if we don't have a political system by then that treats all humans like humans.

Please don't take this post too seriously I just had this idea of a white supremacist having an identity crisis due to having more darker skinned children because of climate change haha (Insert some joke about Yakubian apes here)

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I mean it would kind of solve racism
As if Europeans are not perfectly capable of being racist towards people who look exactly like they do. They invented racism, they're experts.
- Reminder that the Irish didn't count as white for quite a while. And the Italians, except when they did and then they didn't again and now they do again.
  
  And the slavs too.

baby, new great replacement theory just dropped /s

White people developed low melanin as a way to combat low amounts of UVa radiation. The change in climate is unlikely to make the ability to absorb UVb radiation a liability.
From what I understand of the green house effect is that higher temperatures lead to more cloud cover and thus less direct UV. If that's correct its quite possible that Africa will become lighter skinned as the need to absorb UV through clouds increases.
- Is this Yukkub's last dastardly plan coming to fruition?

This is hilarious and ridiculous and exactly the thing I needed to take my mind off a busy day.
Anyway, I think you’re getting heat mixed up with latitude. Peoples have developed darker skin closer to the equator.
- Peoples have developed darker skin closer to the equator.
  It is the opposite. People were dark first and got lighter as they migrated north.
  
  True. Though populations that have migrated to equatorial latitudes also become more melanated.

Pretty sure europe is actually not gonna get warmer forever. Once the AMOC collapses Europes gonna freeze.
- A hypothesis I have is that the world gets warmer, China will be somewhat of a safe haven/last refuge, for somewhat "normal" climate/weather/daily life.
  Do you agree with that or have any thoughts?
  I've read that compared to the rest of the world, China overall, but especially Chengdu/Sichuan, and eastern China somewhat as well, will remain much comparatively cooler and more temperate as the average global temperature rises, and that China's natural environment and geography will somewhat or moderately temper the potential temperature increase, and delay the number and severity of extreme weather events in China.
  
  China is not immune to climate change. They have Typhoons along their southern coast to worry about, and will have to deal with food shortages like anyone else. I do think they have a path forward, but it wouldnt be easy. In an extreme climate change scenario China would basically have to use their High Speed Rail network to move all the fertile soil from southern China up into Manchuria, and Siberia. There is water in Sibera they could use, and if they work with Russia, and Mongolia they could turn a lot of that land into farmland once temps increase there. It would be a massive undertaking though. Like the biggest terraforming project in human history. And it would take years.
  Southern China will still get too hot, many cities will have flooding issues, storms will get worse, current farmland will become less productive, the Gobi desert will expand, etc. How China does will come down to planning, and infrastucture. Not luck of the draw. That's the case everywhere. While yes there are regions where climate change will be worse overall EVERYWHERE will face severe challenges. Even the most stable regions.
  China like most large countries will have regions that do decently well, and regions that suffer more. The US is no different. It's southwest is doomed, but the great lakes are in a pretty good position. China's big issue is food. They have a lot of mouths to feed, and as farmland becomes less productive food will be scarce. They're gonna have to put a lot of resources towards creating new farmland.

is going to slide down the globe towards the equator like melting ice cream

You can get substantial results in only one generation if you do it right. You’d get diminishing returns in successive generations, but just keep going. I believe in you.

"It's not the heat, it's the UV."
-Yobi Gerra

That would be the funniest thing ever, of course I'm sure the racists would just move the goal posts.
As for time scale, I'm not sure if anyone knows the time scale of the initial development of lighter skin tones. Could have been thousands of years, could have been hundreds of thousands. It probably wasn't faster than that, because if it was then we would have enough data by now to see the effect in certain populations that have migrated latitudes within written memory.
But here's something to consider: sometimes evolution can produce effects over surprisingly short periods of time, so it is theoretically possible for this to happen as a result of climate change even if it's very unlikely, so don't lose hope.

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