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==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
− | + | {{incomplete|Created by [https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/Encyclopod The Encyclopod] who wanted to preserve [https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/The_Dark_One The (now-extinct) Dark One]'s DNA but ... - Title text not explained, specifically why the mentioned virus type could be such an issue for the team. Is it embarrassing? Or were they just all very ill? 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". |
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+ | [[Ponytail]], [[Cueball]], and [[Megan]] in this comic are scientists who are sarcastically worried about pathogen strains becoming extinct. People want harmful pathogens and parasites 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 5–15% of the global population annually and causes 3-5 million severe cases worldwide. | 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 5–15% of the global population annually and causes 3-5 million severe cases worldwide. | ||
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+ | The title text mentions {{w|polio}} and {{w|Dracunculiasis|Guinea worm disease}} - diseases that are being {{w|Eradication of infectious diseases|eradicated due to worldwide efforts}} - the former, famously, through vaccination, and the latter through education and prevention techniques. A Google search [https://www.google.com/search?q=%22sarcastic+endangered%22+list "sarcastic endangered" list] seems to indicate that the "sarcastic endangered" list is not a real thing. | ||
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 a few cases, 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. | 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 a few cases, 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. |