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Matt Ridley Optimistic View on Evolution of the Human Race
Humans have evolved in many ways and currently, there are a lot of activities happening to make one optimistic for a better tomorrow. Human race experiences rapid changes compared to other animal species. There are also activities to make one pessimistic. Matt Ridley, a famous writer and credited journalist, believes that the human race will be better in the future and ignores the unprecedented economic downfall that he sees. Besides the humans being better in the 22nd century, he also believes that ecology is going to change (Marta, 71). The statement is true, but there is some controversy in it. Matt Ridley writes a book titled ‘The Rational Optimist’ which he talks about his optimism about the human race and the reasons why he believes. In the first chapter, he talks about the many things that have changed in the 21st century. Even though Matt Ridley is very much optimistic about the future, the public, on the other hand, is pessimistic and calls for radical change.
To begin with, Matt Ridley uses different cases to show how the human race has evolved. First, he gives an example of a family that is assumed to have been peaceful in the 1800s where the father reads the magazine the mother prepares food, the sister feeds the horse and so forth. One will view this as peaceful until trouble knocks in that is a mother has a toothache, the sister is to be married to a drunkard and so on. This implies that the 21st century has witnessed civilization and at least diseases can be treated at ease, and daughters have a say on the type of marriage they want. Ridley is optimistic that in future things will be better from the sense that China is ten times richer than it was fifty years ago, and the developing countries are improving daily (Marta, 71). It is true since the cars used in the 1980s emitted more harmful gases compared to the models of 2010s.
Indeed, the human race has prospered, and it is expected to improve in the coming years. According to Ridley, the human race depends more on other living things such as animals and plants for their living compared to any other animal group. For example, a chimpanzee aged fifteen has spent 40 percent of her calories and produced 40 percent. On the other hand, a human being the same age has consumed 20 percent calories and produced only 4percent (Ridley 30). In the case above, human beings have learned to survive more than other animal species. Learning to process from the other creatures and extract less takes time and perhaps in the next years, humans would have learnt on how to produce fewer calories compared now.
Civilization is what assures the human races that the coming days will be much better. According to Matt Ridley, “there was a point in human pre-history when big-brained, cultural learning people for the first time began to exchange things with each other and that once they started doing so, culture suddenly became cumulative and the great headlong experiment of human economic progress began” (Ridley 34). This implies that humans are making efforts in deriving what can improve the economy. The interdependence of the world on trade more so international exchange gives hope that the future is going to be better. Initially the Western spent less on trade and currently, many have majored in trade. China as well is growing rapidly in the world economy as a result of civilization and realizing what international exchange can do to the country.
Further, in the chapter, Matt Ridley asserts that as long as the capital is allocated for the correct innovations, then there is going to be significant progress. There have been great innovations, and currently, technology is widely celebrated. Technology has made life easy, and thus, the human race and other creatures are in a better world compared to the 18th and the 19th century. He gives an example of there being no slaves today, and one wakes up when he or she knows there is somebody to supply fuel fiber and food without much struggle (Marta, 71). The ease in supply is the human progress that Ridley is talking about. He goes ahead to speak about self-sufficiency, which to him it is poverty. The food obtained directly from the farmer is better than the one refrigerated. Also, flowers grown in a greenhouse are ten times harmful compared to those grown in a Kenyan farm. Besides being less dangerous, Kenyan women get employed from working on the farms.
Even though Ridley hopes for a better future, some pessimists find the human race to deteriorate, and they won’t be better in the future. Global warming is a critical factor that contributes to pessimism. Besides the many innovations, a lot of gasses are emitted as a result which ends up causing global warming. Deforestation is also a trend in the 21st century where trees are cut to settle human population, for road construction, and so on. Deforestation also leads to climate change, which if it worsens, then it is now, people are going to suffer (Zenghelis,22). Further, the current society depends much on processed foods which put people at the risk of getting nutritional diseases.
Conclusively, there is hope for the human race to get better with innovations and when funds are channelled to the right place. However, some activities will harm humans, and thus, they should be looked on and corrected. People should be optimistic about a better tomorrow to plan for it.
Works Cited
Marta, Janet. “The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves.” Regional Business (2010): 71.
Ridley, Matt. “The rational optimist: How prosperity evolves.” Brock Education: A Journal of Educational Research and Practice 21.2 (2012).
Zenghelis, Dimitri. “Stern Review: The economics of climate change.” London, England: HM Treasury (2006).
