Cancer=Population Control?

[dickswhip00gs]

do you realize how much polution volcanoes put out when they erupt? sulfur, carbon and all kinds of other pollutants are released in the air. i know this thread is about pop. control, so i didnt mean to take us off topic with the whole earth thing.

btw- nice chevelle.

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by dickswhip00gs

and the rainforests dont mean shit. think about it- 70% of the earth is covered in water.
30% is land
about 15-20% of that land is desert or snow

cut them suckers down! most of our air comes from plant life floating in the ocean.

Yeah, and half of all the species on the planet live in tropical and sub-tropical areas. Lose 50% of species = lose half of all our resources towards fighting disease. Tropical areas are the most dense, meaning those species have had billions of years to evolve mechanisms for self defense against large numbers of other species. And considering something like 60-70% of pharmaceuticals are derived from living species, I think that's reason enough to protect the rainforests.

[fredjacksonsan]

Whew lots of topics here.

Start with rain forests - by estimate they provide approximately 1/3 of our oxygen supply and a multitude of drugs, so bad idea to chop them down.

The oceans do provide a lot of air for us, so pollution in the long run will be very bad. (And avoiding getting into the over fishing discussion)

Add to all of this the massive increase in population, all those new people sucking down the oxygen, and we could be in a world of hurt, air-wise. I don't think there will be much notice either. Just one day people will begin to die off/suffocate in certain regions. The weak will go first, so you'll see the very young and the very old suffering and dying.

Cancer population control? I don't think so since it's a genetic mutation and not a communicable disease. But think of this: humans evolve. So for every million cases of cancer, maybe one person will develop a new genetic benefit. Just a thought.

Now Ebola, AIDS, West Nile, and even the Flu; those are things that may turn out to be population controlling, and the flu has in the past. Already, millions have died in Africa from AIDS, and it's only going to get worse.

In studying the life cycles of animals, it can be seen that there is a normal up and down population curve. Lemmings are a good example that people are familiar with.

Humans have been on an upward swing for quite some time now; between advances in medicine and our ability to adapt and overcome obstacles, build things, etc we have broken out of nature's usual up and down population cycle. The question now is: Will our advances outpace our population, or will the population grow so fast that some epidemic (AIDS?) can't be cured or stopped, causing a huge die-off of people?

It remains to be seen.

[fredjacksonsan]

And IIwhitexb0iII, didn't mean to be insensitive about your grandma. Best wishes for her and you. Cancer is a genetic mutation, and can be brought about by numerous things, including things like tobacco use, radiation, or exposure to small airborne particles such as asbestos. A friend's father had an inoperable tumor in his head so I know what you're going through.

[moslerporschefreak]

Originally Posted by IIwhitexb0iII

my grandmother has a brain tumor and is going through the chemotherapy in attempts to shrink her tumor. as many of you know, chemotherapy does not help 100% of the time. you can see in her skull where the tumor has deformed it, rather disheartening i might add, but it has made me think.

with humans repoducing at increasing rates, and the size of our world remaining the same, it makes me think if _______(insert your higher being here as not to start a religious debate)put cancer and other diseases into the mix to create a population control of sorts.

i do not want to sound inhumane but how good off would we be if we found a cure to those diseases. i know it is a different story when it happens to someone that you know and love, see above, but that has not caused me to change my view on the subject. i just wanted to see what others thought.

If I marry someone and have two kids, the population does not increase on the count of myslef. If I have 1 kid, it decreases in the future. The answer to over population is not disease fortunately, it's wisdom and restraint.

[RickwithaTbird]

Originally Posted by moslerporschefreak

If I marry someone and have two kids, the population does not increase on the count of myslef. If I have 1 kid, it decreases in the future. The answer to over population is not disease fortunately, it's wisdom and restraint.

so you are saying that since you and your wife are going to die one day, the population isnt increasing if you have two kids? You can't count yourself as Zero because you are going to die one day. Everyone alive is going to die within the next 120 years. That doesnt make the population zero. Until you are dead, you count. And remember that your kids are expected to have kids too, and their kids will have kids, who will have kids who will have kids.....

You and your wife have:
one kid, and another kid, and those 2 have:
two kids, and two more kids, and those 4 have:
four kids, and four more kids, and those 8 have:
eight kids and eight more kids, and so on and so on.

Its like the story about the peasant and the king, and the rice. And thats whats happening in the world right now. I predict there will be 10 Billion people on earth in 60 years. the history of mankind has been pretty long, but I think the future of mankind is going to have to reach stages that have only been imagined in movies. There will have to be population control, we will have to start pulling peoples' plugs, killing people with certain diseases, controlling birth rates and a whole lot of other things we all would hate to imagine, but look at the facts. We are going to destroy our habitat, EASILY within the next 100 years. We won't be able to live here with so many people unless we do something about population control, or else resort back to less modern ways.

[moslerporschefreak]

Yeah, my bad. What can I say, I was tired (?).

[SeXy_AnGeL]

Let me start off by saying I'm receiving my BS in Psychology in 2 months and 3 weeks. Population control is already in place via society. Back in the day, lets say mid 1800's, if you graphed out the population, it would be shaped like a triangle, youngest at the bottom, oldest at the top. Way more younger people than older people. However, with society the way that it is today, although there is a higher population, not as many children are being born. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the so called "pyramid" will turn into a rectangle. (If you need a visualization, PM/IM me and I'll show you what I mean.) People are having less children, but science and technology is keeping them alive longer. Population control is in place. Second, although we are finding cures to some diseases...years ago it was normal for people to die from a simple bacterial or viral infection, but now, hell, its very normal for people to miss a day or 2 of work and be just fine. Diseases mutate. Pretty much everything that we have now, mutated from something else. Everything in nature adapts to survive, survival of the fittest. So tomorrow a cure for AIDS may come out, but a new disease will surface, and we'll have to find out how to combat that. I'm not an expert but I do know a bit on this subject.

**the statistics I stated are for the US...sorry for any confusion**

[fredjacksonsan]

Hey Sexy, first of all congrats on the (impending) degree.

As far as the pyramid/rectangle example, was that for the US, or worldwide? I know that many 3rd world countries still have a pyramidal population graph, and that some European countries have an inverted pyramid, with population actually declining. Is there a website where these figures could be viewed?

[Chevyracincamaro]

doesnt the idea of population control by a higher being completely undermine the basis of your higher beings? most dieties arent vengeful, atleast the ones i have an understanding of arent. God, for example, is supposed to have an undying love for man. why, if said creatures existed, would they control what they are supposed to serve and love. doesnt make sense. cancer and natural phenomena arent put in place by some magical being in the sky. they have scientific origins are, at best, completely random in occurence. you dont get cancer cause you skipped church on monday, and you dont die cause some mythical creature wants there to be exactly 6.2 billion people in the world.

which is a point in itself, these forces of nature have been around since the dawn of man. however, the world's population has been increasing exponentially since the iron age. if they were population control of a higher nature, why would we, humans, be allowed to reach the numbers we have already?...

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by SeXy_AnGeL

Let me start off by saying I'm receiving my BS in Psychology in 2 months and 3 weeks. Population control is already in place via society. Back in the day, lets say mid 1800's, if you graphed out the population, it would be shaped like a triangle, youngest at the bottom, oldest at the top. Way more younger people than older people. However, with society the way that it is today, although there is a higher population, not as many children are being born. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the so called "pyramid" will turn into a rectangle. (If you need a visualization, PM/IM me and I'll show you what I mean.) People are having less children, but science and technology is keeping them alive longer. Population control is in place. Second, although we are finding cures to some diseases...years ago it was normal for people to die from a simple bacterial or viral infection, but now, hell, its very normal for people to miss a day or 2 of work and be just fine. Diseases mutate. Pretty much everything that we have now, mutated from something else. Everything in nature adapts to survive, survival of the fittest. So tomorrow a cure for AIDS may come out, but a new disease will surface, and we'll have to find out how to combat that. I'm not an expert but I do know a bit on this subject.

In Africa, that's exactly what the population graphs look like, the pyramidal shape. More importantly, in India, 40% of the population is under the age of 15, and there's already 1 billion people living in India. So India's population is expected to double in the next 20 years. It's only in the developed nations where the population growth rates are slowing, and I guess China as well for obvious reasons. That being said, the population explosion that is set to occur in the next 50 years will create a situation more conducive to a large scale biological epidemic, which is bad bad news for everyone.

[fredjacksonsan]

Yes; with very high population density, lots of very young children and a low standard of living, the situation will be ripe for an epidemic of scary proportions.

[Muscletang]

Originally Posted by fredjacksonsan

Yes; with very high population density...the situation will be ripe for an epidemic of scary proportions.

It's already happening right now. The following are just a few of the viruses spreading around the world. They have killed several million people already and a couple are close to a major outbreak.

1. AIDS
2. SARS
3. West Nile
4. Mad Cow

The population density is also making things much worse than what they really could be. If the tsunami in the Indian ocean would of happened 100 years ago instead of when it did, would 100,000 people died?

[RickwithaTbird]

SARS, West Nile, and Mad Cow, I would not put them in the category with AIDS, but I understand your point.

To me, AIDS is the most advanced epidemic ever, for the fact that it takes so long to kill people. Which gives it more time to spread. At the rate it is going, eventually everybody on earth will have AIDS/HIV at one point. Unless we find a cure. Or unless all the people with AIDS die before it can be transmitted to anyone else. Which is (to say the least) unlikely.

But back on topic, could it all be population control by a higher being? Thats a real hard question, but its not to say it couldn't be. It wouldn't be the first time (according to christianity). Remember the story about Noah and his Ark? Not exactly the same, but its along the same lines. Higher being takes out population. But I don't think anyone said its because of the individual's mistakes like because they skipped church. It could just be an unbiased way to control the masses.

[fredjacksonsan]

IMO, it's a matter of time until we have some pandemic like the bubonic plague in the Middle Ages; it may have already begun with AIDS. When something like that occurs, it will "solve" the problem of overpopulation for quite some time.