General definition of Cancer: Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells. If the spread is not controlled, it can result in death.
That said, is it fair for me to come to the conclusion that the Earth, being one large Organism in itself, is indeed inflicted at this point of time with a dangerous cancerous disease called post-industrial humanity. And is it fair also, for me to come to the conclusion that, taking into consideration the opening definition, that if the spread of this most dangerous form of cancer is not controlled and infact treated, then the Earth’s certain future will result in death.
But the similarities do not end there. Read the link for the American Cancer Society provided, and continue to read other characteristics of cancer, and perhaps you will notice other parallels between the structure and behaviour of cancer and human society, especially interesting is the title and contents of ‘Invasiveness’.
Taking one look at the past and current condition of our planet post industrialisation, politically, socially and more importantly ecologically, and the evidence is plain to see. The exploitation of the earths natural resources and the blatent disregard for the environment by governments, companies and individuals alike, is painting a very grim future for MY descendents. The Earth is slowly (actually not so slowly these days and even faster if this cancer continues to spread at the current rate) perishing under humanity’s suffocating dominance whithin our host organism.
I have long pondered the relationship between the two but have formerly had no one but sheep to voice my opinion to, thus it has not been well receieved on its philosophical merits at best or originality at worst. I hope that it may be better recieved on this forum. Please, I invite all to comment on my observations, whether they be critics or thinkers or just people with an opinion. PEACE to the peoples
JJAH
Somebody’s been watching ‘The Matrix’. Humaity is a disease…and we are the cure. j/k, hon. Had to give you a hard time.
It’s pretty hard to make that statement, because we have no other Earths to go by for comparison. If there was only one human in existance, it’d be pretty hard to tell when it was sick, wouldn’t it? “My nose is running.” “Well, is that normal?” Impossible to say if you have no other points of reference.
Not gonna happen. No threat for Earth’s death, whatsoever. Life will continue to exist on Earth until the seas boil away or freeze over. And probably even then. We humans might die out if we alter the environment to the point that it can no longer support us. But the point is, no matter how bad humanity screws up the environment, the environment will always be able to support something. People get used to thinking about the Earth on human terms. Sometimes people forget that the balance of nature is almost an illusion. Historically, nature is always out of balance. It never stays the same for very long before drastically changing, and then finding some sort of equilibrium. Right now there is a balance, but it’s not the balance. There’s been different balances before, and there will be different ones in the future. Did you know there was life on this planet before there was an oxygen atmosphere? Very simple life, yes, but abundant. Then proto-plants started pumping out oxygen, drowning Earth with the poisonous, corrosive gas. It was a disaster! Mass extinction ensued. But life rebounded. Then, thrived. It will happen again and again and again if given the opportunity, for as they say, “Nature abhors a vaccum.” If humanity H-Bombed itself into oblivion, radiation-resistant lifeforms would inherit the Earth, and in time a new dominant species would be chosen. The Earth-Organism is nigh unkillable.
Can’t argue there. There will always be rough times ahead. But there will always be smooth times ahead too, just past the rough times. Some day we will run out of fossil fuels. But we’ll survive, and in time we’ll employ other energy sources. We’re a resourceful little cancer.
All in all, I’m glad you’re taking an interest in the health of the planet. In the short term, most people give humanity’s ability to patch its own mistakes too much credit. But in this particular case, I think you may have cut humanity’s long term chances of survival a bit thin, and especially the Earth’s. I’m not saying I think we should keep living the way we are, I don’t. I think the time to convert from fossil fuels is now. But short of nuclear winter or a super-virus, I don’t worry too much about the ultimate survival of humanity. And I don’t worry a bit about the survival of Earth. I just wonder who’s going to be top dog in a few billion years…
HaHaHaHaHaHaHa…Yes 'tis the truth, I am a big fan of the Matrix and the thinkng in which it requires on all its levels…Alas I am GUILTY…But fourtunately to my credit (if you choose to believe), this has been a question on my mind for some time before the Matrix. Actually it did not even occur to me when Agent Smith said that, that I had that very same thought… As far back as highschool though (OK it was only 7 years ago, but still) I remember asking that same question to a perplexed biology teacher, he and the rest of my class for that matter, all looked at me thinking - ‘man, what you on bro?’ but being the thinking type I was, I said what I thought was valid, and to my surprise my teacher said - ‘I guess you have a point, in broad symbolic sense… but thats not what were learning biology for so back to our disease topic…’ well…that was the end of it, and not a good enough answer in my opinion.
But back to your post, I thought that it was a very well thought out and executed response. Thanks for offering me some other ways to veiw this topic. Discussion is a great thing is it not…
But in the interest of healthy debate, here is some points I would like to bring up:
True. Very true…however we do have other planets and their atmospheres to compare to. Yes, admittantly, we do not know if they cant sustain life for sure like 100%, but observing planets with highly volatile atmospheres made up of the very same gasses that are currently being pumped into Earths own atmosphere, it is more than likely that they cannot support anything other than the empty terrain of a ‘carcass’ like planet which they appear to be. I did not mean by ‘death’ that the Earth would dissappear, and I dont think that you did either, but when I defined ‘Organism’ It was as ‘Any living thing that exhibits living characteristics’. A human dies, the carcass remains but the self dies.
But even now the hole in our atmosphere is widening, this means that i guess first (not right now but in the near future) ice caps will melt meaning life still for fish and other sea dwelling animals, but its still hot so yes the sea may very well boil over and evaporate leaving us with a mars type senario, but then because of all the dangerous gasses we had previously released, it will look more like Jupiter. Maybe I’m looking at the grimmest possible senario, but it could happen… Weather patterns are all f@#ked up all over the world right now. These are the signs we should be paying attention to. The issue is there DOES NOT have to be a chance of that happening at all. We already know how to sustain ourselves on natural energy, but certain greedy people choose to make sure that we dont, WHY? because natural energy is free to US. But watch, in time water will be the new oil once they finished burning all that shit up… They already started selling it too us in fancy bottles… But I am in no ways venting this at YOU (Asok_green). You seem to know whats up. Which is good. But it just seems to be a non-issue at worst or a back-issue at best for many of our cancerous comrades. They just think NOW. We need to start thinking collectively for the future of our decendants and stop being so selfish.
Good point…nothing to say there except, the future is indefinite we know, so yes new balances and species wil become adapted and dominate able to sustain themselves in the current environment, but how much can the earths living cells take before Earth turns into Jupiter or Mars? Even roaches, as much as they resist death to many things cant handle the extreme heat, that is being burnt. I have tried this as an experiment with a magnifying glass when I was 8.
Well I’m also glad that you can see the need for respecting the environment NOW, but unfortunately the controllers of these industries do not, and we keep buying their shit (me too, dont worry I aint perfect either) thus we continue to take part in a dominating cancer slowly squeezing our life, and yes I still maintain, the Earths life into destruction. Maybe not now, maybe not in a millenium, but somewhere not to far after, on some of our descendants the shit is really goanna hit the fan, and it will not be nice. And the lead up to that will be just as uncomfortable. So take for granted now the simple pleasures and beauty of life, and take pictures for your children of the future, because they may very well need to plug themselves into a matrix to see what it WAS like back in the day… HaHaHaHaHA…sorry I just thought it would be a good way to finish my post.
PEACE MaN - JJAH
