What is one effect of climate change on human evolution?

Climate change has had a profound impact on human evolution, particularly through changes in food availability. As climates shift, ecosystems can experience disruptions which directly affect the distribution and abundance of food sources. For early humans, access to reliable food supplies was crucial for survival, influencing their dietary choices, foraging behaviors, and even migration patterns.

With fluctuating temperatures and changing precipitation patterns, certain regions may become less hospitable for the plants and animals that humans relied on, forcing populations to adapt, develop new foraging methods, or migrate to areas with more available resources. This could foster evolutionary changes, as individuals better suited to the new environmental conditions might survive and reproduce more successfully, passing down advantageous traits.

In contrast, options like increased population density and stable migration patterns do not directly address how climate change has shaped human evolution in response to environmental pressures. Similarly, while societal roles may evolve due to various factors, the connection to climate change is less direct than the dramatic impacts on food availability and resource distribution.