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Among various factors that have made people live longer are the improvement of food condition, the development of modern medical technology, and the stability of social and economic environment.
The improvement of food condition seems to be a very important factor. Compared to the past, much more assorted foods are available and at the same time more nutritious. Coarse food grain such as maize or sorghum had already been replaced by wheat flour and rice. Even the quality of drinking water has been improved. Water from river, water from well, and even tap water is no longer directly taken in; what is now drunk is more likely to be mineral water, purified water, or distilled water. Besides, better nourishments are now cheaply available: a diverse array of vitamins can be supplemented by a single tiny pill.
Equally important is the development of modern medical technology. Finer pharmacons and more effective treatments are continually developed and perfected, which means that many diseases for which there had been no previous effective treatment can now be easily cured. In the past, many pediatric diseases such as scarflet fever or whooping cough could cause an extremely high infant mortality. But now, such diseases are no Matching the improvement of food condition and the development of modern medical technology is another essential factor, the stability of social and economic environment. An obvious example is this: any war may well influence life expectancy of rival countries. On the contrary, in a relatively stable and secure environment, one is much more likely to be healthy. An insecure society can cause more stress, and under such stress, one is quite unlikely to be healthy, because studies proved that one’s immune system would not function well when the stress is intolerable. Intolerable stress is in fact not rare at all, for example, when the society when the society undergoes an economic crisis.
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我反对盲目地保护濒临灭绝动物
I do not fully agree that any endangered animal should be protected, and an obvious and notorious example to support my opinion might be pandas. Let me ask several simple yet serious questions about pandas.
Are they really beautiful Propaganda depicts pandas as plump, lovely treasure, that always play with bamboo shoots. But if a real panda stands before you, you may realize that it’s not beautiful at all, rather, it’s dirty and smelly. I mean at least such a figure is not that beautiful as is always publicized at all. But the real question is this: who says we ought to protect an endangered species merely because of the fact that it is beautiful Who gives us such presumptuous right to determine which species should be protected simply by our own aesthetic standards We protect endangered animals to retain biological diversity, to maintain ecological balance, and in fact, whether that species is beautiful is an absolutely irrelevant factor to consider.
Do they really deserve such a protection In fact, not every species deserves protection, and protecting every endangered species is clearly impossible. When we are talking about protecting a certain endangered species, it is most likely because that extinction is caused by human beings, and may well bring about an ecological disaster. But not every endangered species endanger because of human activities. It is estimated that over 99 percent of all species that ever existed have become extinct. Every species has its own process of emergence, development, and extinction, and when it has reached its extreme conclusion, nothing can stop the extinction. Pandas are endangered because they have reached their extreme conclusion, and the fact is that their extinction is in fact least likely affect ecosystem negatively. The longer we are trying to protect a so-called endangered species which is in fact doomed to be extinct, the more money are wasted.
Maybe the most important question is this: do we have enough money Our country is a developing country, hardly has enough money to do everything, and it’s clearly necessary to give exclusive priority to what is truly important. There are so many other demands which require more urgent priority, for example, education. Many children in China, thousand-fold in amount of existing pandas, are now out of education. Either alleged 9-year compulsory education or the slogan ‘Let no one behind’ needs money, and this priority is clearly more urgent than that of protecting pandas. Just let me ask one more simple question: how many schools we can build for children who are deprived of education merely because of poverty if the money which is used for raising pandas was saved