'Whites are turning black'

2003-08-14 09:12

Natasha Pamplin

London - Global warming and severe heat and sunlight may cause white Europeans to turn a darker shade.

German scientists say a hotter climate and sharper sunlight could change the skin colour of Europeans back to that of their ancestors who moved from tropical Africa to the colder climates of Europe.

A German newspaper, Bild-Zeitung, published photos in which German chancellor Gerhard Schroder and tennis star Boris Becker were digitally "Africanised".

The headline read: "Will such summers really make us darker?".

An expert, doctor Diaz Pesantes from Hamburg, said the answer is yes.

According to Pesantes, the sun's ultraviolet rays increase the body's production of melanin, the dark pigment that provides the body's only protection against sunburn and cancer.

The newspaper said people in warmer climates developed a permanent dark skin over ten thousands of years because they needed year-round protection.

The article explained that those who moved closer to the poles developed lighter skins over the millennia because they were less exposed to ultraviolet rays.

"We will see the results of the shift in climate in ways that we only dreamed about in the past," said Professor Volker Lenneweber from Maagdeburg University in Germany.

- Beeld