Cure for Cancer

World Health Organization defines cancer (noun) as, “A large group of diseases that can start in almost any organ or tissue of the body when abnormal cells grow uncontrollably, go beyond their usual boundaries to invade adjoining parts of the body and/or spread to other organs. The latter process is called metastasizing and is a major cause of death from cancer.” In addition, Oxford English Dictionary defines cancer (verb) as, “To infect and corrode through the introduction of a malignant or destructive influence.” In other words, cancer is an entity that exists through infecting each and every living being it encounters so that it grows uncontrollably. Unfortunately, cancer does not have any regard towards the well-being of whomever it infects, more often than not resulting in the death of its host, because for it to grow uncontrollably it needs to keep consuming the host, and when it kills the host, it needs a new one to continue the process.

Now, let’s take a look at the relationship between humanity and its host Earth. Earth is more than 4.5 billion years old whereas humanity has been around just for the last 200,000 of this time, with about 6,000 of it being after the emergence of civilization. Essentially, humanity has not been around for most of Earth’s existence, they are recent arrivals. Earth had spent more than 4 billion years in harmony before humans arrived. Sure, it went through 5 mass extinctions where 95% of the existing species ceased to exist, but it never faced any ozone holes, complete resource depletion, drastic surface temperature increase, and more in terms of collapses in Earth system trends like it is facing now.  Regrettably, most of these collapses came after the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s; meaning that humanity is the cause of almost all of them. Long story short, living beings on Earth previously faced extinction, but this is the first time Earth itself is facing extinction, and this is all due to human activity in the past few hundred years. Humans have recently arrived and taken their place as residents of Earth, but their impact has been quite catastrophic in the short period they have been present. They have drilled holes in both the atmosphere and the ground, killed anything remotely interesting or useful (including humans), and have been rapidly depleting all natural resources. Yet, the most important thing they do is that they do not allow Earth to recuperate and regenerate. Earth is able to recover from any collapse or harm because it has immense powers of healing and restoration, but it needs peace, patience, and time to do so.

However, humans do not possess any of these traits. Since they do not have the billions of years Earth has but a measly 100 or so years, they only have a short time to leave their mark and they do not care about what happens after they are no more, so they put themselves at the centre of all things and wreak havoc on anything and everything on their path to prosperity. To put it differently, without any regard for Earth’s well-being, humans have been growing and reproducing uncontrollably while irreversibly harming Earth systems (killing Earth in other words) for their own gains. Therefore, the definition of cancer perfectly explains the relationship between humans and Earth. Humans are not natives of Earth. They were not present for most of Earth’s existence and they are a malignant or destructive influence who happened to mutate and come alive within the boundaries of Earth. In addition, even though it is not their intention, they have been rapidly infecting and corroding Earth towards its eventual demise in their struggle to grow and reproduce uncontrollably. Hence, humans are the cancer of Earth.

Currently, there is no definitive cure for cancer. Humans are actively trying to find a cure, but so far they can only provide temporary solutions and leave the rest to hope. This sometimes results in the host completely getting rid of cancer whereas cancer can always bounce back and show its face where it is least expected within the host. For humans, cancer is an agent of chaos. There is no knowing what it will do next. It might lay dormant for years within the host, forcing the host to think it is not a threat, but it can also change faces in an instant and kill the host. Hence, even though humans do not know much about cancer, they know that it is dangerous and that they should end its existence, immediately if possible. The same goes for the relationship between humans and Earth. Just like how cancer is an agent of chaos to humans, humans are the same for Earth. It does not know much about humans, they have only been alive a short time, but it knows that humans are unpredictable, rapidly and uncontrollably growing, and killing Earth with their existence. This is why, especially after Earth system collapses became a reality, it has actively been trying to get rid of humans and cure itself. In the past few years, this manifested as COVID-19, extreme weather events and wildfires around the globe, earthquakes, and more. Earth is sending humans obvious messages through such events, and it is trying to tell humans that they need to change their ways if they want to co-exist with Earth, on Earth. It is also telling humans that if they do not change their ways, it will eventually find a way to get rid of them.

Nevertheless, humans do not listen and change their ways as if they have no intention of ceasing to be the cancer of Earth. They are trying very hard to cling to their current ways without any regard for anything. They are actively ignoring the signs Earth has been sending them, thinking that they will eventually find a way to survive, just like they always do. Unfortunately though if the host dies and they do not manage to infect a new host in time, they will die as well. This is why humans are looking for ways to make space travel convenient. Once Earth is no more they will need a new host to survive so that they can keep the process of uncontrollable growth and reproduction going. However, this will also be the end of most of humanity because 95% of the species present cease to exist when a mass extinction happens on Earth. Hence, for a small portion of cancer to survive, both Earth and the majority of the cancer will need to die. Still, there is no need for this to happen. If humans heed Earth’s signals and try to find common ground with it instead of destroying it, there is no need for anybody to die. Instead, they can flourish together. Or, humans can choose to keep their current way and become the cancer of the universe after Earth is no more.