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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Here’s an interesting article in of
all oddball places, chess news. The author is a British statistician as
well as a chess grandmaster. He has some interesting insights regarding
the increase in life expectancy. That map is interesting too: life
expectancy is longest in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Sweden</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Japan</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iceland</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Check it out:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3064<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>But look at what has happened in recent decades: in 1981,
the life expectancy (at birth) was 70.8 years for men and 76.8 years for women.
In 2001, it was 75.7 years for men and 80.5 years for women; an increase of
2.45 years per decade for men and 1.85 years per decade for women. The average
for the whole population was more than two years per decade – higher than
it was 50 years ago. Thus, far from the rise in life expectancy tailing off, it
has actually accelerated.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>Why is this? There is of course much discussion on this
point, but in my view it can be summarised by saying that life has got much
better in the past 50 years. Just to take one example, consider air pollution.
When I was young, coal was the main fuel used for heating, and this caused a great
deal of indoor air pollution. Smoking was far more common than today (chess
clubs, I recall, being particularly bad). Outdoor air pollution was also much
worse. I missed the 1952 <st1:City w:st="on">London</st1:City> smog which
killed 4,000 people, but I remember vividly the last serious <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City> smog in December 1962. The sun
appeared only as a pale heatless disc during the day; going outdoors would make
you cough and choke and it wasn’t much better inside the house. The
weather was freezing cold and supplies of fuel ran out. My whole family huddled
in the kitchen with the cooker turned full on, as this was the only available
source of heat. I played chess listlessly. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 color=black face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>The improvement since then has been remarkable; measured by
the concentration of many of the most important pollutants, <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:City> air is now cleaner than it has ever
been since the 16th century. There are of course many other factors involved
than air pollution, but in almost all areas the story is the same; things have
got much better. We should of course not be complacent and it will doubtless
require continuing efforts to maintain this progress. But in general it is hard
to complain about the improvements of the last 50 years.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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