Introductory Post

The human race is showing a frightening trend of behaving like a disease. Humans act more like pathogenic organisms; not following the same laws that every other mammal (and reptile) on this planet adheres to (kind of like an animal who finds itself outside its normal habitat and becomes a pest) and we are fast on the path to destroying our host, the Earth. Our numbers are increasing at a great rate and so is our consumption of the Earth's resources: Like a pathogenic organism who overwhelms it's host, sucking out it's vitality and leaving poisonous wastes behind without a care. Similarly, we seem to multiply without regard for any limit; consume resources like there is no tomorrow and excrete waste products that harm our host grievously. There is one thing that a pathogenic organism has, however, that we do not, and that is the ability to move on to another host, which ensures that the organism does not completely die out with the exhausted host. Not only do we run the risk of destroying our host, but we will take many other species with us on the road to our own demise. Already, the threat of extinction hangs over an alarming number of our cohabitants of Earth. Our only hope lies in stopping this wasteful behaviour (or in finding a new planet to live on).

Since the 1950s, our rate of catching fish has increased from 19.3 million tons to 132.5 million tons in 2003; with 18.7 million tons and 90.2 million tons of fish being caught in the wild (respectively). Consumption of paper has increased five-fold, grain consumption has tripled, and atmospheric concentrations of CO2 have reached their highest levels in 650,000 years. CO2 is 30% higher at 377.4 ppm, with methane 130% higher than they have been at any other time. Total forest area in the world equals 4,000,000,000 hectare, but at the end of the 20^th century, almost half of the world's forests are gone with 0.1% of forests disappearing each year (that's 13,000,000 hectare per year). We can replant forests and keep the same amount of hectare, but it will still take 30 years to support any life and 300 years to reach its previous culture. In fifteen years, between 1980 and 1995, we lost areas of forest larger than the area of Mexico. Water tables are falling between 2 to 6 meters per year on every continent. Wetlands are disappearing, rivers are dying and species are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. The human population is now increasing by 80 million people each year, which guarantees increased consumption as well as increased production of wastes. Startling fact: the 225 richest people in the world have as much acquired wealth as the poorest half of the entire human race. The wealth of the world's three richest people is equivalent to the total output of the poorest 48 countries. Americans account for only 1/20^th of the world's total population and use 1/3^rd of the world's resources.

Since the 1950s, more than 750 million tons of toxic chemical wastes have been dumped into the environment. Human-made synthetic organic chemicals linked to cancer had exceeded 200 billion pounds per year by the end of the 1980s. That is an increase of one hundred-fold in two generations. Over 435 billion pounds of carbon-based synthetic chemicals were being produced by 1992 in the US alone. Well over 1,000,000 tons of toxic chemicals were released into the environment in 1994, 177 million pounds of which were either known or suspected carcinogens. There are about 75,000 chemicals in commercial use today, 3,750-7,500 of which are thought to be carcinogenic to humans. Of the forty thousand most notorious dump sites and hazardous waste landfills, there are 1,231 "priority" sites with 40 million people living within four miles of one.

As a result, 40% of Americans can expect to contract cancer within their lifetimes. I personally know 5 people who have contracted cancer in the last year and 5 others who have died of it. The World Health Organization has concluded that at least 80% of all cancer is attributed to environmental influences. Industrialized countries have a lot more cancers than countries with little or no industry. Breast cancer rates are 30 times higher in the US than in parts of Africa. Since 1950, childhood cancers have risen by 1/3^rd. 1 in every 4 hundred Americans can expect to develop cancer before the age of 15. Between 1950 and 1991, incidences of all types of cancer in the US have risen 49.3%. Cancer is the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 35-64 and the second leading cause of death overall.

Some of these pollutants mimic natural hormones and wreak havoc with the endocrine systems of humans and many other animals. Male fish are being found with female egg sacs, male alligators with shriveled penises, male human sperm counts are plummeting. These pollutants lodge in animal fat cells and travel up the food chain so that a higher concentration is found in the top predators (like humans).

Since 1950, 50 new diseases have emerged. Included in this list are Ebola, Lyme's Disease, Hantavirus, and HIV. With rising temperatures, researchers are warning of the epidemic potential of malaria carrying mosquito populations. There are epidemic levels of coastal algal blooms, some of which are highly toxic to humans and to fish and are directly linked to our excessive pollution. For those who think that it is ludicrous that a tiny organism such as humanity could affect something so large as Mother Earth; think about the tiny pathogenic organisms that can so affect our bodies.

An infected host fights back against the disease invading it. The Earth is reacting in the same ways as does a human being infected with a pathogenic organism. As our bodies raise temperatures to kill off the disease, so too is the Earth when one looks at global warming. Since 1980, we have recorded the 15 warmest years, with NASA scientists stating that "a new record by a wide margin," was set in 1998 with the highest ever recorded temperatures and the largest annual increase. In 1995, we saw the highest sea temperature in the North Atlantic, coincidentally the same year we had twice the usual number of tropical storms.

Instead of launching white blood cells, T-cells, and other bodily defenders against a disease, the Earth is showing us an increase of insect populations, new strains of deadly viruses and bacteria, as well as algae that is especially toxic to human beings.

With our rapidly growing human population, our non-sustainable habits are bringing us face to face with dire environmental problems that threaten our existence. It is time to change these wasteful and polluting old habits and turn to more sustainable means. It is time for us to get our act together and do our share toward more sustainable lifestyle choices. Nature holds the keys we need to a sustainable and harmonious existence on this planet, we just have to pay attention.

Either way, time is running out and humans have to collectively make a decision. Will we continue on this path and destroy the Earth and ourselves? Will we perhaps just destroy ourselves while the Earth overcomes our infection and survives to flourish another billion years? Or will we learn to live in a symbiotic relationship with our planet? Will we continue on a path similar to a disease-causing pathogen, or will we start a new path as dependent and respectful inhabitants?

What causes a planet to die? When does it fail completely? Did Mars fail to stabilize during one of its changes? Is Mars then an example of how a planet that possibly teemed with life, where rivers, long since dried, flowed on it's surface can get sick and die? And how did the Earth recover from previous massive changes and avoid death? We don't have answers to any except the last of these questions, buried under mountains of data and dirt.

If we survive long enough explore other planets, we might find out when they fail to regulate themselves and survive change. Our geological data (CO2, Temperature, Magnetic poles, water level, living species) points toward long term stability with extinctions and drastic effects whenever any value we examine goes higher than normal. Species diversity is critical to surviving changes, because in a living system, it is species that do the regulation, species that emit or absorb gases or compounds. Did Mars lack enough species to avoid its own planetary death?

With the help of Ian Smith.

Additional reference: State of the World 1999