Human beings have spread to every continent, sometimes driving other animal species to extinction   in the process.It has become the most widely spread species on the planet, occupying mountains and valleys, deserts and jungles, shorelines and islands, yet always finding some good means of living in these widely differing environments. The total weight of all living members of the species is far heavier than that of any other animal, and the human population is now growing so rapidly that it will double within the next thirty-five years. What accounts for the success of our species? The answer, in a word, is culture. We create culture, but culture in turn creates us.We are consequently no longer the victims of the environment.We make our own social environment, inventing and sharing the rules and patterns of behaviour that shape our lives and we use our learned knowledge to make the natural environment more suitable to live in. Our shared culture is what makes social life possible.  Without a culture transmitted   from the past, each new generation would have to solve the most basic problems of human existence over again. It would have to think up a family system, to invent a language, to discover fire , to create the wheel, and so on.     Culture frees us from relying on the slow and accidental process of physical evolution by offering us a new, purposive , efficient means of adapting to changing conditions. If we waited for natural selection to enable us to live at the North Pole, to fly to the moon, or to live under the sea , we would wait forever. Unlike other animals, we can self-consciously adapt to our environments and can adapt environments to meet our own needs. According to the passage , human beings   _  .
are the victims of the environment rely on other animal species for their success make social environment and change natural environment change social environment and make natural environment