My bright idea: Learn to want less

Following the frugal example set by our hunter‑gatherer forebears is the best way to combat today's environmental challenges, says explorer Spencer Wells

Spencer Wells
The Observer, Sunday 6 June 2010

Spencer Wells has a job that most people would kill for. He is explorer-in-residence for National Geographic and his work has taken him to every corner of the globe. His particular interests have nothing to do with wild places, however. His fascination lies with the people who inhabit these remote corners: how did they get there and what are their biological relations with other inhabitants of the planet?

Wells is a geneticist and leader of the Genographic project, funded by National Geographic, which has traced the movements of human populations since we first emerged from our sub-Saharan homeland 100,000 years ago and colonised the planet. In the process of this work, Wells noted that a swath of genetic changes occurred to our species around 12,000 years ago.