Statistics are just numbers. Until you put them into perspective and can comprehend the magnitude, they are just words. Some statistics that have been starting to mean more to me are those about animals nearing extinction.
When I was on my snap chat the other day looking at the Discovery National Geographic articles, the Sumatran rhino was discussed as one of the most endangered animals on the planet. The article discussed how the one Sumatran rhino in the United States was being moved to Indonesia in hopes of breeding this rhino with one of the others in captivity there. It is believed that there are only a few hundred of this species spread out in Southeast Asia.
Okay so a few hundred does not seem too bad. I mean at least there aren't single digits left of this fuzzy rhino species. Wrong. To put this in perspective I thought of how many students were in my high school graduating class. We had a little over three hundred and fifty in my grade. We all seemed to get lost in the sea of my high school campus which is microscopic in comparison to the rain forests these animals are roaming. Now imagining that there are the same amount of the Sumatran rhinos left in the world as the number of students I walked across the graduation stage with, makes me realize how rare they are. And to get more philosophical about it, it makes me realize how generic I am. I am one in over seven billion while this animal is one in a few hundred.
Ever since I was younger, I always knew my spirit animal is a panda. I am connected to a panda by not only being from China but also because I love to eat, sleep and just enjoy being lazy. Pandas are a classic example of endangered animals and even young kids learn about this special bicolored bear. Thankfully there are continued efforts towards recovering the panda population but even they seem to be statistics. The last panda population census I read about said there are supposed to be less than two thousand pandas left in the world.
To put this number in perspective for me, I thought of the student body at my college. We are about one thousand and three hundred students. Even though the number of pandas left in the world is more than that, their population is spread across the planet from zoos or captive studies to the wild Chinese forests. Other friends of mine that attend state schools, think of my school as being so small in comparison to their multi-thousand sized schools. But while at my small school, it seems big because even though I know a lot of people, I can still could meet someone new each day.
Perspective allows me to put statistics in real world terms so that they affect me. I can go to a zoo next time and think of how amazing it is to see a panda eating a bamboo shoot. I can realize that the species I am witnessing now, may not be around in a century. In a century these animals could only be remembered through pictures and stuffed toys in museums. In a few decades, people I know and love now will not be around.
It is important to learn how to put statistics into your perspective in order to appreciate the value of the data and realize where they are going.
