07/13/07
Cancer is defined in the dictionary as “A malignancy of potentially unlimited growth that spreads destructively through local invasion and, if allowed to grow unchecked, can cause eventual total systemic destruction through metastasis”. A second definition is, “Something evil or malignant that spreads destructively”.
The term “malignancy” in our language has a negative connotation because when something is malignant it will, unless dealt with and removed, eventually bring about the destruction of everything around it, including itself. I wonder. What if the malignancy knew what it was doing? What if the cancer knew that through its own voracious appetite and relentless requirement for survival, it would eventually bring about its own demise, would it continue to do so? I wonder if, despite the likelihood of killing itself by its own actions, the cancer’s need to continue to grow, unchecked and uncontrolled, is the only thing of which it is capable?
Just because a malignancy has the potential for unlimited growth, does that mean it is required to do so? In the case of a truly cancerous growth the answer would have to be yes. By definition, a malignancy causes systemic destruction. So, it stands to reason that if it has used up and destroyed what it has been feeding on it must then spread to other areas or systems to find more sustenance in order to continue its existence. When the malignancy spreads it leaves behind an area, or an entire system, that is unable to continue to provide that which the cancer needs to maintain its existence. I wonder; if the malignancy knew it would eventually use up everything it needed to live, would it continue to do so? If it knew it would destroy itself by continuing its unchecked growth, would it persist?
In some ways a malignancy can be compared to a forest fire. The fire initially starts in a small area. However, eventually, the fire uses up what it needs to continue burning. That’s when the fire begins to spread. It does not intentionally set out to destroy anything; it is merely continuing to burn. Since it has used up that which initially allowed it to burn, it must then spread out to other areas, seeking new sources of what it needs to exist. The area it leaves behind has been destroyed, rendering it useless in sustaining the fire. As the fire spreads it continues to grow not only in size, but in strength as well. The more fuel that is available, the bigger and stronger the fire will become. The bigger it gets, the stronger it becomes, thus making it harder to control. It is much the same with a malignancy. As a cancer grows and spreads it becomes stronger and harder to stop.
In order to continue to exist, some cancers will develop the ability to adapt to changes in their surroundings. For instance, if a malignancy spreads to an area that cannot be used to continue its existence, internal changes will eventually occur which will allow it to be able to do so. It will adapt to the changing conditions in order to continue to grow.
In much the same way that cancer is described as a malignancy in the body, mankind can be described as a malignancy upon the earth. Just as a cancerous malignancy starts as a small tumor, man started out living in small groups. The size and strength of those groups was controlled by the food source, just as the size and strength of a cancer is controlled by that which it feeds upon. When the food was plentiful the number of people increased accordingly. When the amount of food diminished so did the population. It was in this way the delicate balance needed for the continuation of all life on earth was maintained.
Early man was nomadic. He was forced to move from one place to another to seek out the food supply. When the wild game man hunted diminished in a particular geographic area, and the human population was not provided with enough food to survive, they would then move to an area of more plentiful food. However, the geographic area which was left behind was still able to support life, and would eventually return to its original state. This was the cycle that maintained the balance which was necessary to assure the survival of the environment. If something disrupts that balance it then puts the environment in peril.
As man’s intelligence and knowledge grew he developed ways to provide his own food and was no longer completely dependent on hunting for survival. Man developed agriculture, and in so doing brought the food source to himself rather than having to follow wherever it went. In this way man was able to control the amount and quality of his food source. He learned how, through fertilization and irrigation, to produce more food. As the food supply grew it could then support more people and the population grew accordingly. The growth of the population prompted the development and production of more food. With more food came even more people. This unrestricted population growth continues today even though in some parts of the world people starve due to lack of nourishment while in other parts of the world food rots and is destroyed because there is too much.
Sickness and disease are merely the means by which population is controlled in nature. If an illness besets a population of a certain species of animals the weak succumb and the strong survivors will then pass their naturally developed immunities on to the next generations. This was nature’s way of assuring the survival of the species by culling the weak from the herd, and it was the same for early man. In some cases entire human populations were wiped out by disease. But, the land they had occupied was still able to support life, which allowed man to eventually return. Being the intelligent creature he is man began to discover ways to prevent and cure disease. In other words, early man adapted to overcome the threats of his environment much like some cancers adapt to overcome medical treatment. As medical knowledge became more refined and capable of preventing and curing disease, thus prolonging man’s life, the populations continued to grow, unchecked by nature’s system of balances. Over time man’s average lifespan continued to lengthen. Two hundred years ago, when there was no penicillin, when there was no vaccine for influenza, when something as simple as a small cut becoming infected could cause death, the average worldwide lifespan was 37 years. With the advent of medical cures for disease and the continued increase in the production of food, today the average worldwide lifespan is 67 years. Of course, the extra years added on to man’s lifespan have allowed him to produce more offspring which, in turn, requires production of more food and other goods.
With the need for increased food production have come methods of artificially stimulating plants and animals to grow larger and faster. While this has produced a larger quantity of food, the quality of that food is not the same as it once was. Artificial chemical stimulation does not add natural nutrients which are needed to make the food as beneficially nutritious as it should be. A great deal of the food today is mass produced with little regard as to its nutritional value. In order to maintain ever-increasing worldwide population growth man today is opting for quantity over quality. The long term effects of this lack of proper nutrition have already begun to be markedly noticeable in our chronically overweight, sickly society. However, rather than focusing efforts on ways of assisting people to lead healthier lifestyles by providing nutrition education and developing methods of producing more nutritious food, a vast amount of scientific research and effort is being used to create artificial methods of eliminating obesity. There isn’t nearly as much money to be made from providing people with nutritious food as there is in producing pills which falsely claim to quickly and effortlessly cure the obesity caused by the lifestyles people lead today. As the world’s population continues to grow, the production of food will inevitably increase proportionately. Unfortunately, for the sake of increased production and increased profits, the nutritional quality of the food being produced will be sacrificed. In the cases of both food and population, the quantity will go up while the quality will go down.
The ever-increasing world population is using up the earth’s natural resources at an alarming rate. To provide housing for the increasing population, large sections of the tropical rainforests that play a major role in replenishing oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere are being burned down on a daily basis. Even if that devastation were to stop immediately it would take decades to even begin to re-grow what has been destroyed. The escalating population requires increased use of fossil fuels which will not only one day be completely used up, but which also foul the air we breathe as they are being burned. Increased production of manufactured goods needed by a growing population not only decreases the raw materials used in the manufacture of those goods, but the waste by-products created in the manufacturing process are being dumped into our lakes and rivers fouling our supply of drinkable water. If this continues at the current pace, someday a bottle of clean drinking water may cost more than a gallon of gasoline, if all the gasoline hasn’t been used up that is.
It is man’s intelligence which has allowed him to discover and create ways of prolonging his life. But, with that knowledge comes the responsibility of using it in such a way as to not destroy our world for the sake of the bottom line. The sheer size of the world’s population and the methods being used to produce food and goods to maintain that population are having permanent deleterious effects on the entire planet. The basic necessities of life; the air, the water, the soil which grows our food are being polluted and depleted at a staggering rate. If this continues, and there is little evidence to indicate that it won’t, the detrimental effects to our environment and our planet will be irreversible. Once it has been changed beyond repair our environment will no longer be able to sustain us, and mankind, as we know it, will eventually cease to be.
Although it may seem outrageous to some, the analogy of mankind and cancer is fitting in a variety of ways. Mankind, if allowed to continue to grow irresponsibly and unchecked will, much like a cancer destroys that which sustains it, eventually devastate enough of our earthly environment that it will no longer be able to sustain us. At present there is no cure for the planetary cancer known as mankind. Perhaps it’s time we began working on a cure rather than continuing to develop methods of increasing and spreading the disease. If we don’t start paying attention to what is going on around us and taking an active role in the maintenance of our environment and the size of the earth’s population, we may just end up like a malignancy that ceases to exist because it has destroyed everything that kept it alive.