Adaptability

The adaptation discussed here takes into account the genetic adaptation capabilities associated with the mechanisms of natural selection (which require many generations), as well as the epigenetic mechanisms (immediate), as well as any adaptive mechanisms that remain to be discovered.

Today it is known that the ability of species to adapt is more important and faster than the first geneticists had imagined. However, any form of adaptability remains limited, like any system, and the question of exceeding the threshold of adaptability remains at the centre of the problem of human-nature interactions. Whenever man invents any artifice, he may have consequences for his own health or that of the natural environment, as soon as the new constraints exceed his own adaptability or those of the different actors in the ecosystem.

However, this genetic or epigenetic adaptation should not be confused with somatic adaptation, which makes it possible to become accustomed to an abnormal situation or to pay the price in the form of irreversible imbalance, suffering or trauma. Example: mithridatization (immunity with respect to mineral or plant poisons, acquired by progressive habituation).

You can get used to drinking alcohol or tobacco and not feel any more unpleasant reactions – on the contrary, feeling bad in case of interruption – even though their regular consumption leads to illness or death. Or get used to living in a polluted atmosphere, no longer notice any smell or discomfort, and yet pay the price in the longer term, as in the case of asbestos.

In other words: for a new situation not to be harmful in the long term, it must not exceed the limits of genetic (and epigenetic) adaptability. The fact that we no longer notice its nuisances is in no way proof of safety.