Gold, coal and oil

Abstract

Jared Diamond has hypothesized that guns, germs and steel account for the fate of human societies. Here I propose an extension of Diamond's hypothesis and put it in other terms and dimensions: gold, coal and oil account not only for the fate of human societies but also for the fate of mankind through the bodily accumulation of anthropogenic arsenic, an invisible weapon of mass extinction and evolutionary change. The background is clear; arsenic species fulfill seven criteria for a weapon of mass extinction and evolutionary change: (i) bioavailability to all living organisms; (ii) imperceptibility; (iii) acute toxicity; (iv) bioaccumulation and chronic toxicity; (v) adverse impact on reproductive fitness and reproductive outcomes and early-age development and growth in a wide range of microbial, plant and animal species including man; (vi) widespread geographical distribution, mobility and ecological persistence on a centennial to millennial basis and (vii) availability in necessary and sufficient amounts to exert evolutionarily meaningful effects. The proof is becoming increasingly feasible as human exploitation of gold, coal and oil deposits cause sustainable rises of arsenic concentrations in the biosphere. Paradoxically, humans are among the least arsenic-resistant organisms because humans are long-lived, encephalized and complex social metazoans. An arsenic accumulation model is presented here to describe how arsenic accumulates in the human body with increasing age and at different provisionally safe exposure levels. Arsenic accumulates in the human body even at daily exposure levels which are within the lowest possible WHO provisional tolerance limits, yielding bodily arsenic concentrations which are above WHO provisional limits. Ongoing consequences of global scale arsenic poisoning of mankind include age-specific rises in morbidity and mortality followed by adaptive changes. The potential rise of successful forms of inborn resistance to arsenic in humans will make it certain that a number of other hardly won, nicely balanced human-specific adaptednesses will decline. These include a decline of encephalization and life-span, and consequentially intelligence and longevity. These changes are likely to have far-reaching impacts on biological and cultural evolution of mankind. The only efficient way of reducing chronic global exposure to arsenic and avoiding further human losses is the inactivation of important sources of anthropogenic arsenic such as hard rock mining and burning of fossil fuels.