A Planet Inflicted by Cancer

Some people treat our planet as a living organism — the Greeks named her Gaia, and many of us fondly call her Mother Nature. Then, the Mother is suffering from a grave and painful disease. The disease is a cancer. The cancer agent is none other than one of her children among the countless species she has nurtured and sustained. The species is Homo sapiens, us, the wise man and the human race, one of her latest children and the most intelligent of all living organisms. There have been many far more powerful species and organisms during the planet's three-billion-year-plus history, none — not even among the most powerful or the mightiest, including the dinosaurs and the African elephants — have caused so much hurt and damage to her. It makes us wonder what kind of animal humans are to be able to do what the powerful and the mighty can't do.

Our species began about seven to eight million years ago from a greatly disadvantaged position, from a common chimp that somehow was forced to walk on two feet. It was certainly one of nature's weirdest creations. The creature was so ill-fitted to survive that it should be destined to join many weaker species that has ended up in nature's recycle bin. Our ancestor was supposed to die within several sunrises and sunsets, or several seasons at the very most. But he did not; he miraculously managed to survive and gave rise to a number of children. They also survived, continued to evolve, made it through several transitional species, and eventually gave rise to us, the modern human.

For the most parts of our lineage's relatively short existence, our species did not show any sign of malignance. Like all Mother Nature's children, our species has lived in compliance to her rules and has been obedient still. Then, things began to change. The cancer began to develop. There are three distinct stages, starting from a seemingly harmless period, to increasingly alarming, and then extremely dangerous.

Stage I: After the Discovery of Farming

If Mother Nature had been more observant, she could have noticed that our species, from the very beginning, the first chimp that began — or more correctly was forced — to walk on two feet, was bound to be a troublemaker. But she was too busy, and she had seen stranger things among the creatures she looked after. It took almost the entire 8 million years of our species' evolution to develop any symptoms. The event that has started it all was the discovery of farming by us. After farming had been fully established, our species began to grow in greater numbers. As our population grew, we needed more lands to grow food and to build houses. We began to take more and more acreage of land from indigenous species, either chasing them away or eliminating them altogether.

The lives of humans also became more complex; not everyone needed to be directly involved in producing food. Many people began to make their living by trading items. As a result, many more items besides food and shelter became necessary and were created accordingly. Farming could support far more people than hunting/gathering, a lifestyle that was gradually replaced. As always, more humans create more waste and garbage. The landscape began to deteriorate and symptoms surfaced, though hardly noticeable or any cause for concern.

Stage II: After the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution began in the eighteenth century. Like the discovery of farming, it has forever changed the way our species conducts business and lives our daily lives. We have since increasingly employed machines to do our work. With machines, we can produce much more food, clothing, and everything that we need for daily life, and in much shorter time and with much less cost and human labor. Like the discovery of farming, it appeared to be a blessing and had no ill side effects. As a result, the planet could support many more millions of people. And as a result, we needed more land to build houses, schools, factories, recreational facilities, networks of roads, and many, many more items. At this stage, our species has, without the slightest shred of doubt, become, pound for pound, the most polluting, as well as the most destructive, species that has ever lived.

Exponential number of acreages was appropriated from more and more indigenous species that were unfortunate enough to share the planet with us or lived too close. Environmental deterioration and pollution became increasingly worrisome among the highly industrialized countries. Global mass extinctions became a constant scene as we grew and expanded. If that was not bad enough, war in higher frequency and bigger scales became the norm. War not only kills us, both soldiers and innocent people, it destroys habitats and the lives that dwell in them. Within several decades after the beginning of the twentieth century, Mother Nature has seen two world wars. The symptoms of the cancer have then become full blown. Many caring people feel we need to do something to stop the cancer, yet nothing has been done or can be done because we did not know the root of the problem. And the cancer continued to develop unchecked.

Stage III: The Information Age (also known as the Computer Age, Digital Age, or New Media Age)

Even after the invention of cars and airplanes, thereby making traveling much faster for us, the planet has remained a vast place. It usually took days or weeks to get from the shore of one continent to the other. It led us to happily believe that the planet had an infinite capacity to absorb our garbage and to fully regenerate itself despite the abuses. Any biologist would tell you that our planet has an enviable system to self-cleanse, in which the wastes and pollutants from one group of organisms are happily...