The Future of Life

NO.12 The Future of Life, by Edward Wilson, American biologist and leading pioneer of sociobiology. He is a good writer and has won two Pulitzer Prizes for "On Human Nature" and "The Ant". He has long been committed to the study of ants and other social insects. He proposed the concept of "biodiversity", which is now well known. He is the greatest naturalist today, and he is concerned about China's development and environmental destruction, pointing out to the point: "Because China's economic production population is very large, it is also one of the most threatened countries in the world's flora and fauna." Extensive deforestation has brought many species to the brink of extinction, and the symbolic giant panda is familiar to everyone. The cut-off flow and severe pollution of China's rivers, especially in the Yellow River Basin, have caused a large number of aquatic organisms to disappear. ”

The author begins with this long letter to Thoreau, whose thoughts gradually shift from Walden to consideration of the state of global biodiversity. Thus began to show people a simple way of the mysterious world of life forms, from all corners of the land to the depths of the ocean full of strange creatures and potential resources, the richness of the natural world is far more than we imagined. However, due to the greedy plundering of people, it is expected that by the end of this century, half of the species will likely disappear forever on the planet.

In the face of stories of rare species becoming endangered or even extinct, he is full of sympathy, because they have experienced the misfortune of natural disasters again and again, are members of the earth on which we humans live, and are also an important part of human natural capital. Describing the loss of biodiversity, he noted that humans themselves were primarily responsible for the crisis. Of course, he is not desperate for the future of life, and in the book he summarizes or proposes many solutions to the crisis, at which point the author elucidates how the new approach to conservation can ensure the long-term stable development of our society.

Back when I was a child, I saw weasels running into the yard and snakes crawling into the yard to steal eggs. Inadvertently looking out into the field, you will see an unknown roe deer running towards you with its back. In the summer peanut field, you will find a nest of rabbits that are frightened and fleeing. Somewhere in the mountains, pheasants will nest and lay eggs. In the evening, the aunt next door came back from the field, followed by a "big dog" half a person tall, and later learned that the big dog was a wolf. Very little can be seen today. Many life is disappearing into nature at its rate, and some species are extinct before they are recognized. We care about the present, look forward to poetry and distant places, but have we ever wondered whether the future human beings will be lonely, and are human products comparable to the creations of nature?

Classic statement:

1. For those of you who live on the shores of Walden Lake, the morning lament of wild pigeons and the croaking of frogs breaking through the surface of the dawn are the real reasons to save the land.

2. The so-called benevolent path is the moral choice made by human beings, animals, driven by nature, and in order to seek self-satisfaction in a world of vagaries.

3. Nature is always available for us to explore, it is both a test for us and a refuge for us, it is our natural home, it is everything. Save it, you said, to protect the world is to protect its wildness.

4. The blue ocean looks clear, and from time to time there are fish and invertebrates swimming back and forth in the water. But in fact, it is not what we think, and the creatures we see with the naked eye are only a small point at the top of the biomass pyramid.

5. Hyacinthus is currently known as the champion of supertherophilic creatures. It can reproduce at temperatures of 112 degrees Celsius, the most suitable growth temperature is 105 degrees Celsius, and if the temperature drops below 90 degrees Celsius, they will stop growing because they are too cold.

6. The biosphere creates a world that is renewed every minute and remains in a unique state of material imbalance. In this state, human beings are completely bound. No matter which direction we change, we will make the environment deviate from this ingenious biological dance.

7. The Australian only northern gastric brook frog uses the stomach to provide fertilized eggs for development, and then spits out the growing frog bushes in their mouths.

8. The so-called noble barbarians never existed. When the Garden of Eden was stationed, it became a slaughterhouse. Once people find heaven, they are doomed to lose it.

9. All living organisms evolve chemicals that the body needs to fight cancer, kill parasites, or fight off predators. We have learned to refer to and compile our own pharmacopoeia. Nowadays, antibiotics, anesthetics, painkillers, anticancer drugs... We can use it all, and it's all derived from wild biodiversity.

10. Insects or weeds that are often at our feet and that we disdain are unique beings. It has its own name, a million-year-old history, and a place in the world.

11. Technology determines what we can do, and ethics determines what we should or should not do.

12. Generally speaking, what we call "beauty" may simply be the pleasure that our brain produces in response to genetic adaptations to certain stimuli.

13. The so-called wild land refers to the combination of the earth and the life that lives on it, which is not bound by human beings, and where human beings are only passers-by and do not linger.

14. The biggest lesson of the past 200 years of environmentalism is that only by looking beyond oneself, falling on others, and then falling on other creatures, can people really change their hearts.