Gene Therapy

When Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, he declared that "all men were created equal".  Today we know that he meant to include women, minorities, and the poor in that description.   The statement is often used in legislation to address violations of civil rights.  This will likely be the biggest challenge of gene therapy, which looks beneficial on the surface, but will only be affordable for the upper class- mostly rich, white, and male. 

The greatest benefit of gene therapy is that many genetically transmitted diseases could be reduced, and that's probably all it should be used for.  If not, I would expect lawsuits like the kind performance-enhancing drugs brought for athletes.  Only this would be on a higher level, because selection would be based on class discrimination.  In the Center for Genetics and Society podcast, Marcy Darnovsky stated "we already have such shocking levels of inequality and such shocking patterns of discrimination... we would suddenly be living in a world where people of means could have children who are... biologically superior to the un-engineered..."  I think the key is getting governments to allow gene therapy only for medical purposes and not for self-enhancement. 

An additional problem is that if everyone could afford to select traits for their children, odds are they would be picking the same ones (intelligent, tall, athletic).  There would be very few deformities among children in future generations.  Yet if you pay careful attention to evolution, you will notice that it's the deformities that allow species to adapt to changing environments and mutate into something else.  If we all had similar traits, there would be less genetic variation for natural selection to keep the chain of life going in the event of an extinction. 

 

Source:  https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/internal-content/designer-babies-crispr-genetic-engineering 

The Key Concept in Physical Geography

 

    The most important and interesting concept for me in physical geography, which really ties the whole class together, is how atmospheric circulation controls the climate of every region, leading to the diverse range of landforms and lifeforms in each biome they have.  Below is an image of the basic pattern of atmospheric circulation on Earth.  Bear in mind that this image does not include the jet streams, which also play a large role in climate, but more-so on the immediate weather. 

    The image helps explain why the tropics are hot and wet, why all the hot deserts are roughly at the same latitude, the circulation of midlatitude cyclones, and the movement of polar air.  What isn't shown is how the Coriolis Effect redirects air, depending on the hemisphere we are looking at.  With this image, we can imagine how air masses move on average through any region.  I appreciated learning how the vertical cells (Hadley, Ferrel, Polar) play just as important a role in climate as horizontal circulation.  

    The image helps shape the idea that the conditions that determine geography on Earth are far more intricate than might appear at first glance.  The symmetry of the Earth system is a beauty to behold.  Perhaps it is paradoxical then that Earth should have such a wide range of soils, biomes, climates, species, etc.  For a geographer though, nothing could be more simple.