Second, a place can be a literal reality with- out being physical. Truly, the world is too much with us. They realize the public and many of their colleagues don't understand the difference between microevolution and macroevolution. Yes, living things adapt to their environment. Finch beaks and fruit-fly wings can get larger or smaller over time.
Black moths can begin to outnumber white moths when the black moths are better camouflaged.
Then they haven't proved that life has evolved from simple to complex forms. A 4 percent increase in fly wing length over a large geographic range is no more proof of evolution than the fact that I am 6 inches taller than my father. Environmental selection of pre-existing genes is not evolution. Perhaps the reason school boards and politicians have doubts about teaching evolutionary theory is the bad science that accompanies it. Neither do they object to its being taught to children.