Editing 2523: Endangered
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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by a HEARTBLEED BUG - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | |
− | The | + | The {{w|endangered species}} list (also known as the {{w|IUCN Red List}}) is a system for categorizing species based on "level of extinction". |
− | + | [[Ponytail]], [[Cueball]], and [[Megan]] in this comic are scientists who are sarcastically worried about pathogen strains becoming extinct. People in general want harmful pathogens to go extinct.{{citation needed}} | |
− | + | Randall was most likely inspired by [https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-021-00642-4 this article] about different {{w|influenza}} strains. Influenza causes the yearly flu, which infects 3-5 million people worldwide. | |
− | + | The title text mentions {{w|polio}} and {{w|Dracunculiasis|Guinea worm disesase}} - diseases that are being eradicated due to worldwide efforts - the former, famously, through vaccination, and the latter through education and prevention techniques. | |
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+ | The bitter irony here is that much recent scholarship has described [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/parasites-are-going-extinct-heres-why-thats-a-bad-thing-180964808/ links between parasite biodiversity and ecosystem-wide, indeed planet-wide, biodiversity]. In few, if preserving and expanding biodiversity are seen as good things, then preserving and expanding biodiversity of parasites is a good thing, the one not being possible without the other. Parasites and disease agents, arguably, are classes of predators, and their removal can help establish a superpredator, the actions of which can catastrophically drive down biodiversity. Humans, released from predation by a large percentage of formerly-effective microbial predators, through the introduction of penicillin and other antibiotics plus other elements of 'heroic medicine', sanitation, etc., have arguably [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/modern-humans-have-become-superpredators-180956348/ become such a superpredator], and one that is mediating a loss of global biodiversity that may become the largest single species-extinction event in the history of planet Earth. | ||
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+ | On this evidence, the extinction of yet another species in the dwindling catalog of human parasites (the only effective predators on H. sapiens, as shown by its more than 6x population explosion since 1945 and the widespread introduction of penicillin) is a cause for deep concern, not an excuse for snark. The "scientists" shown here have, at best, a blinkered understanding of their discipline (possibly driven by their realization that their livelihoods depend on cultivating popular approval, not distributing facts), and, at worst, no claim to the credentials that a corrupt, self-serving "science education" enterprise has bestowed on them. | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
+ | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} | ||
:[Ponytail stands facing Cueball and Megan in front of a poster board.] | :[Ponytail stands facing Cueball and Megan in front of a poster board.] | ||
:[Ponytail is pointing a stick to the board reading "Current List" with bullet points beneath.] | :[Ponytail is pointing a stick to the board reading "Current List" with bullet points beneath.] | ||
:[The first bullet reads Influenza B/Yamagata.] | :[The first bullet reads Influenza B/Yamagata.] | ||
− | :[Four further | + | :[Four further bulletpoints follow, which are left indistinct.] |
− | :Ponytail: Influenza's genetic diversity has declined | + | :Ponytail: Influenza's genetic diversity has declined druing the pandemic, and the B/Yamagata lineage is at risk of extinction. |
:Ponytail: Which would be ''such'' a shame. | :Ponytail: Which would be ''such'' a shame. | ||
:Megan: Yeah, I'm sooooooo worried about it. | :Megan: Yeah, I'm sooooooo worried about it. | ||
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[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]] | ||
[[Category:Biology]] | [[Category:Biology]] | ||
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