Today's Top Story: The World In Crisis
My friend Laura works for a company called Planktos. Planktos, by my understanding, is mainly involved in finding ways to reduce Carbon Dioxide. Anyway, the company has a blog which is pretty interesting. A handful of Planktos employees post about different aspects of the struggle to diminish climate change. Check out Planktos World.
I've also been reading about the Sixth Extinction. You all have heard of thise, though possibly not by this name. It is simply what some people are calling the modern phenomenon of rapid endangerment and extinction of species around the world. The reason for the number six is that there have been (an estimated) five mass extinctions in the last 500 million years or so. The causes of the first five is a matter of debate, and there's a lot of possibilities. However, everyone agrees that the modern one is being caused by us. Also, it's fairly well agreed upon that we need a certain amount of biodiversity to survive. So we're getting what we deserve, in a sense, though we may not be seeing it yet. What I wonder whether there's a possibility of human extinction. Is it possible that we, as a species, have evolved ourselves into a corner? Or will we weather the expected climate change and mass extinctions of the near future?
I really believe the latter. I mean, humans live all over the world, in a huge range of climates and ecosystems. On the other hand, a huge majority of the population lives in a much narrower range, and this is the range that's being affected. Regardless of whether or not the world's populations will face a choice between mass migrations or mass starvations, it seems like either the the current climate-change trends must change, or the population must. I don't mean to sound like a negative nancy -- I do think it's possible that humans may one day learn to balance their impact on the world, and everything will be fine. My hope is that climate change and mass extinctions will ultimately be nothing more than some really severe growing pains -- the turmoil of a global puberty -- and that in 200 years the world regain relative stability.
I've been recently watching a documentary series called Pandora's Box, on BBC. The first (only?) six episodes document a variety of examples of people using science to shoot themselves in the foot. For example, one of the episodes charts the discovery, proliferation, and ultimate banning of DDT. It's well put together, and I recommend watching it to any of you who, like me, have grown up hearing buzzwords like "soviet block," "margaret thatcher," or "DDT" but have never been sure what the hell this stuff refers to. The general moral of each episode is "People try to manipulate their world with science, futurism, or rationalism, and it ends up screwing them over."
A Cycle of Fear Hope?
I'm not really down in the dumps about this, and I'm not trying to spread needless fear. I'm not anxious about this. However, I feel like I want to be prepared. Prepared for what, you might ask? Here's an example of what I'm talking about: 6 months ago, we were learning about a group of herbs that are used in extreme situations where severe edema of the chest is making breathing difficult and it's a life threatening situation. My herbs teacher told us: "you will never use these herbs; Western Medicine has a better, faster, safer way of dealing with this condition." but I find myself thinking that in one possible future, people may not have access to this sort of treatment, either because it will be unaffordable, or it will simply not exist. These herbs are dirt cheap, and in this case, they could save a life. Maybe there's a chance that I will need to use them some day. And if that day comes, I want to be ready for it.
Talking about specialization with my classmates, I can't help thinking about these things. Today, acupuncturists are mostly making relatively healthy people even healthier, because they work on fine tuning in a way that MDs can't. But in the past, in pre-industrialized-westernized China, acupuncturists had to work with life-threatening diseases and emergency situations because they were all there was. In that kind of environment, specialization isn't really a concern. As much as I hope for a better future than that past, don't want to be taken by surprise.
I've also been reading about the Sixth Extinction. You all have heard of thise, though possibly not by this name. It is simply what some people are calling the modern phenomenon of rapid endangerment and extinction of species around the world. The reason for the number six is that there have been (an estimated) five mass extinctions in the last 500 million years or so. The causes of the first five is a matter of debate, and there's a lot of possibilities. However, everyone agrees that the modern one is being caused by us. Also, it's fairly well agreed upon that we need a certain amount of biodiversity to survive. So we're getting what we deserve, in a sense, though we may not be seeing it yet. What I wonder whether there's a possibility of human extinction. Is it possible that we, as a species, have evolved ourselves into a corner? Or will we weather the expected climate change and mass extinctions of the near future?
I really believe the latter. I mean, humans live all over the world, in a huge range of climates and ecosystems. On the other hand, a huge majority of the population lives in a much narrower range, and this is the range that's being affected. Regardless of whether or not the world's populations will face a choice between mass migrations or mass starvations, it seems like either the the current climate-change trends must change, or the population must. I don't mean to sound like a negative nancy -- I do think it's possible that humans may one day learn to balance their impact on the world, and everything will be fine. My hope is that climate change and mass extinctions will ultimately be nothing more than some really severe growing pains -- the turmoil of a global puberty -- and that in 200 years the world regain relative stability.
I've been recently watching a documentary series called Pandora's Box, on BBC. The first (only?) six episodes document a variety of examples of people using science to shoot themselves in the foot. For example, one of the episodes charts the discovery, proliferation, and ultimate banning of DDT. It's well put together, and I recommend watching it to any of you who, like me, have grown up hearing buzzwords like "soviet block," "margaret thatcher," or "DDT" but have never been sure what the hell this stuff refers to. The general moral of each episode is "People try to manipulate their world with science, futurism, or rationalism, and it ends up screwing them over."
A Cycle of Fear Hope?
I'm not really down in the dumps about this, and I'm not trying to spread needless fear. I'm not anxious about this. However, I feel like I want to be prepared. Prepared for what, you might ask? Here's an example of what I'm talking about: 6 months ago, we were learning about a group of herbs that are used in extreme situations where severe edema of the chest is making breathing difficult and it's a life threatening situation. My herbs teacher told us: "you will never use these herbs; Western Medicine has a better, faster, safer way of dealing with this condition." but I find myself thinking that in one possible future, people may not have access to this sort of treatment, either because it will be unaffordable, or it will simply not exist. These herbs are dirt cheap, and in this case, they could save a life. Maybe there's a chance that I will need to use them some day. And if that day comes, I want to be ready for it.
Talking about specialization with my classmates, I can't help thinking about these things. Today, acupuncturists are mostly making relatively healthy people even healthier, because they work on fine tuning in a way that MDs can't. But in the past, in pre-industrialized-westernized China, acupuncturists had to work with life-threatening diseases and emergency situations because they were all there was. In that kind of environment, specialization isn't really a concern. As much as I hope for a better future than that past, don't want to be taken by surprise.