Richard Leakey
Fixable things 
As part of the Capstone experience and its inaugural topic, "global climate change," Hanover College invited noted paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey to be the first in a series of speakers on the subject.
In two packed lectures held Oct. 8 and 9 in the Center for Fine Arts (CFA), Leakey spoke to students, faculty, staff and community members about the need for conservation and for science to have a voice in the classroom.
"Everything can and does have an impact," he said in an interview between lectures, referring to the actions each of us takes every day. "(We need to) find a way to reduce our carbon footprint, even though it doesn't seem like we're in danger here in the U.S. — we're still part of the world." Giving an example Leakey added that people would be more cautious with water if they had to fetch it for themselves every day.
"This is something we can change," he said. "These are fixable things."
Leakey also suggested we could potentially solve two problems by learning to waste food less. "Ask for less, Insist on less." He said there is a culture in this country to take too much food, only to eat a small portion of it. Either they throw away the excess or it winds up on their waistline.
Considered the world's leading expert in the origins of humankind, Leakey has made international headlines for more than 30 years. He has been profiled on "60 Minutes" and Time magazine named him one of the 100 greatest minds of the 20th century. He recently founded WildlifeDirect, an online charity that provides support to conservationists via the use of blogs.
In his second talk, which focused on his expertise, Leakey said the major difference between humans and other species is bipedalism. This allows us to have our hands free for other things, he said, however without our legs, we become highly dependent on others for survival. Having lost his own legs in a plane crash several years ago, Leakey knows this concept well.
According to Leakey, scientists can trace humankind origins to east Africa as far back as 195,000 years ago and 65,000 years ago was the last human migration out of the continent. He hypothesized that speech was the last modern event in human evolution but what may have surprised some if not many in the audience was Leakey's belief that humans have stopped evolving.
"Human evolution is over," he said. "We'll change and develop, but (we won't) change as a species."
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