Cancer=Population Control?

[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.

[Oz]

Population control is already in place both in nature (Tsunami) and from people (China's one child policy). Add to that the continuing evolution of science and high yield farming etc. there is no reason we cannot continue to expand across the earth with a much higher density than now.

Japan is a good lesson in this. Strong economy, healthy diet, fantastic international reputation and a very dense population.

Imagine if we have another world war in the next 50 years. See how that changes your tune.

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by Oz

there is no reason we cannot continue to expand across the earth with a much higher density than now.

There is a very good reason. When that happens, we will have wiped out 20-50% of all species on the planet. No thanks.

Cancer isn't a disease, and it can't really be seen as a mechanism of population control. HIV and toberculosis, on the other hand, act very much like population control mechanisms. In fact, if something like ebola were to ever hit a major city and wasn't quarantined immediately, the carnage would be unimaginable. Kinda scary to think about.

[Oz]

And you really think humans are going to give two shits about wiping out species? How many have we made extinct already? And on the flip side of the coin, couldn't the destruction of these species be seen as progress? Any animal that can't adapt and survive at the same rate of us gets obliterated in our path?

[Ssom]

Japan? Strong economy? 15-20 years ago maybe, these days it's hanging on by the molecules on the tip of its fingernails. Bad example Ozwald.


Enough being pedantic....... Population control is something that can only be done by people, nature is too unreliable really, I'm really not sure how many are killed by disorders (Can't call cancer a disease, because it's not one), but given the current birth/death rate, I doubt we're at any risk of over-population

[Broke_as_****]

If anything cancer would be a limiting factor in age, not sheer population mass.

Most cancer developes from the mutation of self-replicating cells. If you make a copy of a piece of paper, it's not going to be as high quality as the original. Do this many times utlizing the copies you have already made and before long the paper becomes utterly unreadable. And when the cells of your body duplicate themselves before they die, the same error happens. Thus you see higher rates of degenerative cancer as age progresses. Eventually we would all die of cancer, if it wasn't for sheer old age that got us first.

[sivic02]

If all of the world were as overpopulated as we are in these highly developed countries I could see where you were going with this. But the only problem I have with it is cancer can be found in members of small secluded tribes in Africa (for example) so I dont think its _______'s way of controling the population, now here in the US I think the government causes cancer to rid themselves of people they see as a threat j/k ....is that a black helicopter i see in the sky? DAMNIT THERE HERE!!!...

BTW sorry to hear about your grandma man, I have a friend who i just watched struggle through lukemia (sp?) she made it through but it was tough to see her go through it so just keep your head up and I wish her the best of luck man.

[Muscletang]

Originally Posted by Moss1O6GTi

Japan? Strong economy? 15-20 years ago maybe, these days it's hanging on by the molecules on the tip of its fingernails.

Even though Sony, Honda, Nintendo, Mitsubishi, and many other companies that we get lots of stuff from are based in Japan.

Originally Posted by thrasher

There is a very good reason. When that happens, we will have wiped out 20-50% of all species on the planet. No thanks.

No they wouldn't be wiped out. Most of the animals in danger would be put out of harms way into zoos.

Originally Posted by thrasher

In fact, if something like ebola were to ever hit a major city and wasn't quarantined immediately, the carnage would be unimaginable. Kinda scary to think about.

If ebola became air born and got loose in New York or L.A. and wasn't quarantined, then the world population would die or most of North America if it wasn't transported across the ocean.


With all of this said I don't see cancer as a population control. How is most cancer formed? Sadly, when people smoke, dip, drink, and other things they increase their risk of cancer. It's true that some cancers come up on perfectly healthy people but others bring it onto themselves.

I do think the virus is the population control though. We are not totally over-populated just yet. If ebola broke out in New York it would spread like a wild fire down the east coast because it's very dense down it. For the virus to get to L.A. it'd have to cross the mid-west. If you've ever looked at a density map you'll see that the America mid-west is spread out and there's a whole lot more space between major cities.

Sometime in the future though the America mid-west will be as dense as what the east and west coast are now. If a deadly virus broke out it'd have a very easy time getting from place to place. Europe as dense as it is would be a perfect target for a deadly virus outbreak. Africa, which has many of these deadly viruses, is like the mid-west. It's very open and spread out which makes it very hard, if not impossible, for most viruses to break out.

A movie that I think is great and shows you that this is possible and very scary is Outbreak. It's about the ebola virus getting into America and a small town has to be quarantined off to keep in from spreading.

[Ssom]

Japan was once a stellar example of a strong economy, back when Growth was reguarly between 5 and 10%. That was two decades ago, the growth slowed down dramatically in the 90's because people had invested too much, back in 1995 after the earthquake, the economy actually came to something of a standstill, look what it did to Barings bank/Nick Leeson to see what I mean. Then there was the crisis of 1998 and NOW we have a slowed US/Euro/Asian market as well, which means Japan plunges further into debt and still can't get growth to pick up, the ageing population probably doesn't help either.


Yep that's one mighty strong economy.

Sure they have a few companies doing well, Toyota especially, but more and more are falling on thier faces (Nintendo, Nissan and Mitsubishi anyone?)

[thrasher]

Originally Posted by Oz

And you really think humans are going to give two shits about wiping out species? How many have we made extinct already? And on the flip side of the coin, couldn't the destruction of these species be seen as progress? Any animal that can't adapt and survive at the same rate of us gets obliterated in our path?

I agree that most people don't give a shit about the destruction of a lot of the worlds' species, but that sucks. The only organisms that can possilby adapt quickly enough to human activities in order to survive are microbial, because their generation time is so short. Adaptation by other organisms requires thousands of years, at least. I don't think that's progress. We have a responsibility to protect biodiversity that comes with the power to destroy it.

Originally Posted by Muscletang

No they wouldn't be wiped out. Most of the animals in danger would be put out of harms way into zoos

Just like the 10% of worlds' species that have been wiped out in the last century, that were supposed to be in zoos.

[dickswhip00gs]

sorry to hear about your grandma, that sucks. my sister, 16, broke her leg two years ago, and upon recieving the x-rays, the doc found cancer spots around her knee. shit like that happens, all you can do is stick it out, and accept the outcome.

as far as disease and other things being a population control issue, why not eliminate the problem before it starts. china has the one baby rule. i believe, in america, you should be required to have a liscense to reproduce. lets face it- there are just some certain individuals who should not reproduce.

for example, my dad and i own a landscaping company. you should see some of the people i've had come to work for me! i had a guy, a couple months ago, that was just flat out sorry. he's telling me at lunch how if he has so many kids, his wife can sit on her ass all day and collect from the government. and some other shit about if they dont get married the mom gets some other check.... they know how to take advantage of the system and that got me pretty angry. thats soooo illegal and just shows how people take advantage of our system. people who think its okay to be sorry and not to have to work for anything, that think shit should be handed to them are the ones that dont need to reproduce. they are not worthwhile and not productive towards society. trash breeds trash, its a never ending cycle. i ended up firing the S.O.B after he told me he was getting his class D liscense and i call over to his house and his dumbass wife says "oh, he's sleeping, i'll wake him up." i said never mind and he can get his check friday.

there are many idiviuals like that. people that are just flat out lazy and useless. if there were a set bar to which people would have to meet in order to have kids, our world would probably be better off, by the time they get a disease, its too late. preventative measures.

[RickwithaTbird]

I think the earth needs population control. I remember in high school our social studies teacher was telling us how they predicted the population to hit 6 billion within a couple years. Well, if you look now, at the reate its been going, we will hit 7 billion within a coulple more decades, then 8 billion before 35 years, 9 billion before 50 years, 10 billion before 60 years.. where are we going to fit all those damn people? Imagine how many unproductive people there will be. I don't want to see all of earth populated by people. What is going to happen to the rainforests?

[Muscletang]

You people need to realize though that it's not in the U.S. where the population is getting out of control. The U.S. is actually growing at a nice rate and isn't out of hand.

The areas where the population is shooting up is in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and areas around there. The thing is guys can't take a few quarters to the local gas station to get a condom. If they can't do that then it's really hard to go buy a box at a store. Also the women can't get the pill or any other form of birth control. The way to reduce the population would be better and more birth control methods in developing nations.

[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. i just finished oceanography class and we did a whole segment on this.

and the condom deal is true. AIDS is one of the most common STDs in those countries.... and its mutating into different strains everyday. in a way that in itself is a form of population control. no doubt. the problem is they cant die fast enough, or pick up some change for a rubber or keep thier dick in thier pants and thier legs closed.

[DGB454]

More than 15-20% are desert. And it's growing. See below. How useful will the oceans of the world be to water the plants we need for food? The oceans give us the air we need but at the rate we polute them how long will it be before they cannot sustain plant life?Already one third of the world is considered desert and many deserts are expanding. The Gobi desert in China has expanded every decade since the 1950s. In a 5 year period ('94-'99) the Gobi desert expanded over 20,000 square miles . In 5 years that's an area larger than New Jersey and Massachusetts combined! More importantly, the desert is about 150 miles from Beijing and still expanding.

The Sahara desert in Northern Africa has spread South over 250,000 square miles in the past 50 years. As it is, the Sahara is the largest desert in the world at 3.5 million square miles, larger than the continental United States