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  • Wildlife on earth is disappearing. In the last century, Hundreds of weird and wonderful species went the way

  • of the dodo. Today, over 20,000 more species are at risk of dying out,

  • but we simply don't have the time or resources to rescue them all. It's a tough situation,

  • but not a unique onemilitary medics, first responders, and ER workers regularly

  • make decisions like these, and a medical triage-like approach could help us decide which species

  • to save first. For example, we could prioritize those who

  • need help stat!, like the last 60 wild Javan rhinos teetering on the edge of extinction.

  • Alternatively, we could take a kind of save-the-president-first approach and focus on species vital to entire

  • ecosystems, like mangroves, whose groves support over a thousand species or otters, whose urchin-eating

  • keeps kelp forests healthy. Or, we could prioritize patients that have the best and cheapest chance

  • of long-term survival; New Zealand's Maud Island frogs, for example, could be rescued

  • from their invasive nemeses for the cost of keeping a panda alive in captivity for about

  • half a year. But so far, conservation decisions haven’t

  • been so calculated. For instance, giant pandas aren’t nearly as rare as Javan rhinos or

  • as critical to their ecosystems as otters and mangroves. Plus, theyre such reluctant

  • breeders and their bamboo forests are so fragmented that saving them has already required billions

  • of dollars and may mean keeping the species on permanent life support.

  • And yet these fuzzy-wuzzy bundles of cuteness pull at our heartstrings - and our wallets.

  • As the literal faces of conservation, pandas pull in big bucks for wildlife protection.

  • And they do share – a little. Money raised by the World Wildlife Fund does go to dozens

  • of conservation projects, but the majority of campaigns fronted by pandas or other charismatic

  • creatures are solely devoted to saving their symbolic species.

  • What’s more, keeping the spotlight focused on the plight of a few celebrities means the

  • demise of species with homelier faces - or no faces at all ... youve probably never

  • seen a campaign to save the the stinking cedar or the pygmy hog-sucking louse. But unlike

  • the celebrities, underdog species like these are often ideal triage candidates: they can

  • be simpler to resuscitate, less expensive to protect, and vital to their ecosystems

  • - their only flaw is inferior cuteness. Should we really let appearances decide who lives

  • and who dies, or should we take a more rational approach? The tradeoff is this: thinking rationally

  • when it comes to saving species may mean asking ourselves whether a world without pandas is

  • something we can bear.

  • we can bear.

Wildlife on earth is disappearing. In the last century, Hundreds of weird and wonderful species went the way

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我們應該讓熊貓滅絕嗎? (Should We Let Pandas Go Extinct?)

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    陳家頡 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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