Extreme Climate, Population Crisis and Rampant Plagues
When my son had a fever, he said to me: "Dad, I can't let my brain get addled by the fever; in the future I'll need my brain to study mathematics and physics. Let's discuss the laws of thermodynamics." And then he really did discuss the laws of thermodynamics with me. I joked with him that, within my lifetime, he should learn the basic skills of medicine; I cannot take care of him until my own death, and in the future if someone in the family falls ill, he too will have to shoulder the responsibility of caring for his loved ones. My son said, Dad, it's no problem for you to live to over a hundred; by then I'll already be seventy or eighty, and I'll have lived enough. As long as you're around, I don't need to study medicine. I still like mathematics; I don't want to study medicine. Although I feel sorry that he will not inherit my mantle, I also know how to respect my child and will not choose his life's ambitions for him.
I do not know whether my son's unwillingness to study medicine has anything to do with my overwork in earlier years; in those years I was always so busy that I had no time even to eat. Because I was frequently called away to terminal resuscitations, not only was I under great pressure, but so were my family. Each time I was called out to attend a critically ill patient hovering between life and death, my child's mother would pace the floor at home, unable to sleep, and could only set her mind at ease once I had returned safely. The responsibility a physician bears is just that heavy; at life-and-death moments, the slightest deviation brings disaster swiftly in its train. For this reason, the descendants of many doctors do not wish to enter medicine, and my son not wanting to study medicine is also understandable.
But in fact medicine is not only important in the present age; it will also be important in the future, even more important, because the physical and mental illnesses we face in the future will only be more numerous, not fewer, than now.
At breakfast today, the whole family sweated through from the heat. This year's sweltering season is not like previous years; the high temperatures are the highest in a hundred years, and extreme climate has caused many more deaths than in the past. Every day when I open the news I can see reports of deaths from heat stroke caused by the hot weather. It is estimated that, with the flood season arriving, more people will die from floods, mudslides and the like.
Over breakfast this morning I discussed with my son the issues of extreme climate, population crisis and rampant plagues. The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs released the World Population Prospects 2022 report on July 10; according to estimates, by November 15 of this year the world population will reach 8 billion, by 2030 it should reach 8.5 billion, by 2050 it will reach 9.7 billion, and it will peak around 10.4 billion in the 2080s.
An unprecedented population crisis will be the root of most social problems in the coming decades, and will be the greatest crisis facing my son's generation. Humans are the animals with the strongest desires on this earth; compared with other animals, our human wants are immoderate, far exceeding our basic survival needs. The earth cannot support so many people; not only that, among the tens of billions, there will always be some whose cravings are insatiable, who pathologically hoard resources, damage the environment, incite ignorant mobs, stir up strife, and even lightly unleash the scourge of war.
So, at least for the next few decades, the climate crisis and the population crisis will only intensify and cannot improve all at once; the currently unbearable extreme climate may persist for a long time. As the globe warms, fungi, bacteria and viruses will also become more active, and rampant plagues are inevitable.
Data just released by the World Health Organization shows that global vaccination against other infectious diseases has been affected by the COVID-19 virus; last year about 25 million children missed basic vaccinations against diphtheria, pertussis, measles and the like. All of this plants future trouble.
I hope to guide my son to think about these issues. Based on my own life experience, when a person thinks about his personal fate against the broad backdrop of the times, he is not so easily entangled by emotions, and his inner troubles become far fewer. The deeds of all living beings are driven by the backdrop of their times. Understanding this principle is crucial, because it helps us understand the world, understand the actions of others, and balance our own hearts. Only by understanding all of this can we live with greater calm, rather than being controlled by harmful emotions such as anger and anxiety.
Social crises do not make me anxious or worried, because I know that humanity has always survived amid crises. Looking at the record of human history, from antiquity to the present there has simply never been an age without crisis. Every age has its own problems and its own crises. Humanity has evolved by coexisting with crises and continuously resolving them.
I hope my descendants can become people who can see problems and have the ability to solve them. And it would be best to stand a little higher, see a little farther, and have broader vision and breadth of mind, so that he will not easily have troubles in his lifetime. This also counts as giving him a preemptive shot for emotion management!