sábado, 16 de janeiro de 2021

Os ultimos rinocerontes brancos sobre a Terra

[Isso é uma nota que escrevi recentemente - em inglês - sobre algo que li]

 [Sudan is the name of the last white rhino on Earth, who died in 2018]

"We expect extinction to unfold offstage, in the mists of prehistory, not right in front of our faces, on a specific calendar day. And yet here it was: March 19, 2018. The men scratched Sudan’s rough skin, said goodbye, made promises, apologized for the sins of humanity. Finally, the veterinarians euthanized him. For a short time, he breathed heavily. And then he died."

Sudan left two descendants: Fatu and Najin (two female rhinos).
"In 2009, when Najin and Fatu first came to Africa, they were scared of everything. They would flinch whenever the wind blew, jump away from every rabbit that hopped out of a bush. They were born and raised in a zoo. Their births — in 1989 and 2000 — were two of the very few bright spots in the otherwise doomed international project to save the northern whites. Although their ancestors were from Africa, these particular creatures were not. They grew up in the Czech Republic, in man-made enclosures, eating pre-cut grasses, surrounded by humans. They had no idea how to be wild rhinos."
I was quite puzzled reading all of this. I wondered "what would it be of earth/humanity if lines/ways of thinking go extinct?" What if science, or scientific thinking goes extinct? Would we have no idea of what it is to be human? Would we carry out wars defending a sun centered universe against those who believe in an earth centered one? Or try to kill corona viruses with lice medication?

[recently there has been more than 400% increase in sales of lice medication in Brazil, after widespread- needless to say, FALSE - rumors that such a medication helped in prevention]
I read a few years ago that "science had stopped being a method to become an opinion, like any other non-scientific perspectives in the room", which is a dreadful thing for anyone trained as a scientist to hear.

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