Magical Creatures: AN APPRECIATION OF AUTUMN MOTH (蛾)

Moths seem to have a bit of a bad reputation: to some they are ill indications or something scary, to others they are dull in comparison to our well-loved butterflies. But moths are an essential part of a(n)     1    , and important food sources for species like birds and bats. And for me, moths are far from dull.

My first meeting with an Angle Shades moth was nearly a non-encounter. I almost passed by without noticing it, thinking it was a fallen leaf on a fence post. But there was something about it that stopped me in my tracks. Its angular shape perhaps? Or the way it sat,     2    , despite the breeze. Closer     3     revealed cream and buff shell-shaped wings, painted with triangles of light pink and brown. Suddenly, it transformed from a(n)     4     leaf into a living thing before my eyes. I’ve been fascinated ever since.

The Canary-shouldered Thorn, with its hairy buttercup-coloured body and yellow and orange wings, reminds me of a fallen silver birch (白桦树) leaf. A night-flyer, it favours gardens and woodlands, and is often drawn to     5     light, meaning that your torch beam may be attracting moths as well as lighting your way in the dark. It’s also worth double-checking any leaves in farm houses, as these sheltered spots are a favourite hiding place of another overwintering     6    : the Herald moth. This elegant creature’s beautiful wings look as though they’ve been     7     by hand and painted with bronze.

There’s more to these imitators than fallen leaves. The Green-spotted Crescent, which     8     disappears on rough branches, has metallic green spots integrating with the moss (苔藓). Maybe I’ve already     9     crossed paths with one, though. As we dig out our big coats and slip on boots for walks beneath branches, how many moths are we missing? These clever creatures aren’t bad indications, but     10     parts of nature, with a gift for fancy-dress.

Eating a calorie-rich diet brought us humans a great advantage: time. We spent less of the day obtaining food. We saved countless hours of needless chewing. Instead, we invested time in doing the things that make us human: we started to     1     tools, erect structures, share stories, create myths and play games.

Calories made humanity possible. Calories are what     2     our big brains. Our calorie-rich diet didn’t reinforce the compulsion to eat, it released us from a food-gripped existence. Just because we require calories does not mean our basic     3     compels us to over-consume them, for the same reason that requiring oxygen does not compel us to perpetually hyperventilate. Yes, it may be     4     to carry extra calories in time of famine, but this assumes an overly simplistic view of our evolutionary past.

Out there in nature, carrying extra body weight brings serious, even deadly, disadvantages. To the evolving primate, greater body mass means slower acceleration and a(n)     5     in the ability to change speed and direction quickly. Back when we were prey—when our ancestors were     6     eaten by big cats, pythons and even eagles—our ability to nimbly start, stop and turn was crucial for survival. To a predator, a fat human was not only easier to spot and easier to catch, it made for a bigger, better meal. To the prey we hunted, a fat human was easier to evade and outrun. Carrying too much fat also increases the     7     of injury and death due to the forces and loads involved in maintaining a larger body. To put it in the simple arithmetic of evolutionary fitness, being     8     fat didn’t increases an individual’s chances of passing on their genes. It actually reduced them.

As we became more     9     there were even more reasons to refrain from overindulgence. Food had to be shared with other members of the tribe, then the village, then the town, especially with children, whose dependence on adults for resources lasts an eternity compared with other species. Otherwise, the human species would have died off long ago, if we really were slaves to a never-ceasing     10     for calories.

All of these have left us with the following paradox: Why were humans generally able to resist vastly over-consuming calories up until about fifty years ago?

Quoted from Mark Schatzker’s The End of Craving

The climate crisis is damaging the health of fetuses (胎儿), babies and infants across the world, six new studies have found.

Scientists discovered increased heat was linked to fast weight gain in babies, which increases the risk of    1    in later life. Higher temperatures were also linked to premature birth, which can have lifelong health effects, and to increased hospital    2    of young children.

The studies,    3    in a special issue of the journal Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, spanned the globe from the US to Denmark, Israel and Australia.

“From the very    4    , from preconception, through early childhood into adolescence, we’re starting to see important    5    of climate hazards on health,” said Prof Gregory Wellenius, who edited the issue with Amelia Wesselink, both at the Boston University school of public health, in the US.

The link between heat and rapid    6    gain in the first year of life was found by scientists in Israel. They analysed 200,000 births and found that babies exposed to the highest 20% of night-time temperatures had a 5% higher risk of fast weight gain.

    7    , 18% of children are now overweight or obese. A possible mechanism for the rapid infant weight gain is that    8    fat is burned to maintain body temperature when the ambient temperature is higher.

Hotter temperatures also increased the number of admissions of young children to emergency departments in New York City, another new study found. The scientists looked at 2.5m admissions over eight years and found that a 7℃    9    in maximum temperature led to a 2.4% increase in admissions in under-fives. Young children lose proportionally more fluids than adults and their ability to regulate their body temperature is immature, the researchers said.

The burning of fossil fuels drives the climate crisis but also causes air pollution and a new study in Denmark assessed the impact of dirty air on 10,000 couples trying to conceive naturally. It found that increases in particle pollution of a few units during a menstrual cycle led to a decrease in conception of about 8%.

Wellenius said an important aspect of the studies was that they showed that    10    people often suffered the worst effects, for example people of colour and those on low incomes who did not have air conditioning or lived in areas with higher air pollution. “This is absolutely a health equity and justice issue,” he said.