Animal intelligence isn't like ours, at least not yet (1)
A unicycle is a mode of transport 10 April, p 36. So, too, was the space shuttle. However, their similarities are dwarfed by their differences. The same applies to intelligence and its sibling consciousness when comparing animals with humans. That there is variation in terms of problem-solving capability within animal populations doesn’t make them “like us”.
That isn’t to say that intelligence and consciousness are uniquely human traits. Should our species end, it is likely that, in the aeons to come, another creature will evolve these attributes and also be capable of writing an email like this.
However, crucially, it won’t be an orangutan. This species will be something entirely different. Regardless of its physical features, it will, essentially, be far more “like us” than any non-human creature currently living on this planet.
Animal intelligence isn't like ours, at least not yet (2)
Your article “Clever creatures” reviewed research highlighting the intelligence of a range of animals. In the same edition, “Love meat tender” (p 51) advises readers on how marinades enhance the taste of meat 鈥� perhaps even the flesh of those clever, video game-playing pigs referenced in the first piece.
So, on the one hand, the intelligence of animals is extolled, while on the other, we are given tips on how best to eat them.
A plant-based diet is well-documented as a sustainable, healthy alternative to the normalised meat-oriented diet. While radical to many, surely it demands examination, being integral not only to any rethink of our relationship with animals, but also to the sustainability of life on Earth.
More efficient farming may fuel meat eating
In your look at biodiversity and the climate crisis, you write that if everyone shifted to a plant-based diet, we would only need a quarter of the farmland used now, while vastly reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with food production 10 April, p 41. But, you say, with meat consumption rising rather than falling, it is vital to maximise yields on existing farmland.
This approach is doomed to failure. If more intensive farming increases meat yields, prices will fall and even more people will eat meat, increasing the demand even further. Just as we have to cut back on fossil fuel use to reduce carbon emissions, we must find ways to promote moving to a more plant-based diet.
Vaccine passports could have moral hazards too
I agree with all Graham Lawton writes on the moral hazards of covid-19 vaccination, and suggest that this could be extended to one of the worst downsides of proposed covid-19 passports 10 April, p 24.
Once issued, these documents will instantly assume much greater significance or relevance than they could ever merit. People will wave their passports as absolute proof of immunity or unsusceptibility, and all the still-necessary measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing, will go out of the window.
My fear is that commercial interests, such as airlines and package-holiday promoters, will be inclined to overstate the significance of covid-19 passports in their eagerness to see the resumption of viable trading.
Are covid-19 disparities down to innate immunity?
As a well-off white person from the US who gets flu shots regularly and has had a lifetime of vaccinations (including BCG as a teenager), the article on the boost they may bring to innate immunity against the coronavirus made me feel very hopeful 3 April, p 40.
I wonder whether the large disparity in severe cases and deaths from covid-19 among some ethnic groups might be due to those affected not getting nearly as many of those jabs.
Dividends are only for the transition to green power
From
Letters, 17 April
Roger Elwell argues that, in a carbon tax and dividend system, people will expect the dividend to continue even when there is no carbon to be priced. But it is only ever intended to compensate for or offset the rising cost of fossil fuels during the transition to cleaner fuels (which the carbon fee incentivises), after which those extra costs should fade.
More wind power is no big deal here in the breezy UK
Your story comparing wind power requirements for a hydrogen-based vehicle economy with those for a battery-powered one implies that the extra UK wind power needed for hydrogen would be a problem 3 April, p 15.
However, the UK has the lion’s share of north-west Europe’s wind and marine energy resources, and green hydrogen technologies are continuously improving. Ongoing growth of onshore and offshore wind, alongside green hydrogen production and storage, could see the UK become self-sufficient in energy 鈥� not just electricity 鈥� and a green hydrogen exporter.
Just reading this might give your brain a boost
The article “How to keep your brain blooming” inspires me to suggest that on top of the seven points listed, “Read 快猫短视频” would be well worth adding 17 April, p 38. I have been reading the magazine since it started and I suspect my lifespan, health and general grasp of the human situation has increased as a result.
This bit of kitchen science finally made it to the lab
The extraction of a blue colouring from red cabbage will come as no surprise to many cooks 鈥� put red cabbage in a steamer and the water will emerge a deep green-blue 17 April, p 19. Curiously, if you steam broad beans, the water emerges crimson. I wonder whether this food-based colouring has also been exploited.
Keeping old age at bay with one simple trick
Further to the correspondence regarding mind over age, I follow the view that “old” is my current age plus 10 Letters, 10 April. This has worked for me since the age of 12 鈥� I am now 73 and feel great knowing that I can never be old.