Humans are a disease!

[Tonington]

This little rant was spawned by the End Times Scenario and a comment in the Kyoto is flawed threads.

I'm going to be a little technical, but this is just my take on an old analogy.


The analogy of humans as a virus has been around some time, I prefer to think of ourselves as some highly pathogenic bacteria.

The Earth has so many relationships which maintain a balance. Periodically it gets sick, or is attacked, and portions of that body die. Then along comes Homo sapiens sapiens, growing much like a bacterial colony. Initial lag, followed by an exponential or logarithmic growth. We have yet to reach the stationary phase or carrying capacity, which is followed by death.

Bacteria are terribly efficient at consuming resouces. While we aren't nearly as efficient, when we account for the scales of comparison it still works. Some bacteria kill by releasing their own enzymes to break down host tissues and use them for energy, others release toxins.

So I like to think of the enzymes as our industrial prowess. Deforrestation, strip mining, oil extraction, fishing practices, etc. While some of those actually can also be considered toxic to the host [Earth]. The host has a variety of defense mechanisms but in this case there are no antibiotics yet to help the defense mechanisms catch up. The defense mechanisms are to slow to react, while we continue our exponential growth and consumption of resources. We become more efficient as time goes by at utilizing resources.

The Earth as a host even fits standard definitions of a live body, save for one. The Earth has a form of respiration, excretion, irritability and even mutation. The only thing it can't do is reproduce.

Everything we do as a highly pathogenic species has consequences on all these characteristics of the living host.

The only difference between us and say Clostridium botulinum is the fact that we can recognize that without our host, we can't survive. That may be our saving grace.

 

[darkbeaver]

Tonnington, will the human epidemic learn to recognize? I don't think we're there yet.:wave:

 

[Tonington]

That's the million dollar question Beaver. I don't think we're there yet either.

 

[selfactivated]

So why worry? Be happy.

 

[darkbeaver]

Wish I had a million dollars ,I'd donate it to you and you could start the Tonnington International Institute of The Human Disease.And gift shop/bar for the slow days.hahaha:wave:

 

[tamarin]

This century is going to be full of surprises. A lot of them unpleasant. And more than a few will be hatched in some tiny part of the globe where dysfunction is an achieved neurosis.

 

[darkbeaver]

Dysfunction, what a lovely concept.

 

[karrie]

The analogy of humans as a virus has been around some time, I prefer to think of ourselves as some highly pathogenic bacteria.


The Earth as a host even fits standard definitions of a live body, save for one. The Earth has a form of respiration, excretion, irritability and even mutation. The only thing it can't do is reproduce.


The only difference between us and say Clostridium botulinum is the fact that we can recognize that without our host, we can't survive. That may be our saving grace.

It's a very fitting analogy Tonington. We consume resources, excrete waste, and thus cause a fever in our host, which could slowly but surely begin eradicating us.

 

[darkbeaver]

Karrie, what if it's already begun and it won't be slow?:wave:

 

[selfactivated]

Karrie, what if it's already begun and it won't be slow?:wave:

Then in your senerio we die..........

 

[darkbeaver]

Then in your senerio we die..........

No way Self, in my senerio Tonnington finds the staff of life, and we all live happily everafter.hahaha

 

[eh1eh]

It is very obvious we are raping the planet, Gaia, properly addressed. Even if the host has to go into a coma, Gaia will rid herself of the infection, people.
You certainly have it right Tonnington. And yes Beaver if we continue we are doomed. Even if global warming is just a cycle and not really effected by our emmisions ( doubt it) there are so many other things we do to chip away at the natural balance of this planet. BTW the last time the universe reproduced, I believe we call it the big bang.:|

 

[karrie]

Karrie, what if it's already begun and it won't be slow?:wave:

*shrugs* it is what it is. If it's already at a point where it's irreversible and it is coming on us fast, there's really not much one can say is there?

 

[darkbeaver]

It is very obvious we are raping the planet, Gaia, properly addressed. Even if the host has to go into a coma, Gaia will rid herself of the infection, people.
You certainly have it right Tonnington. And yes Beaver if we continue we are doomed. Even if global warming is just a cycle and not really effected by our emmisions ( doubt it) there are so many other things we do to chip away at the natural balance of this planet. BTW the last time the universe reproduced, I believe we call it the big bang.:|

Gaia momma, I like your emmisions eh1eh.:laughing7::wave:

 

[s243a]

I think a much better analogy is that humans the brain of Gaia and if the brain dies then so does the body. Intelligent life in my opinion is the highest most important and valuable kind of life there is and I could care less how many more time insects make up the biomass then humans. This thread just goes to show the very strong relegious component of enviornmentalism.

 

[eh1eh]

Gaia momma, I like your emmisions eh1eh.:laughing7::wave:

Yep. A woman scorned they say.

 

[Tonington]

I think a much better analogy is that humans the brain of Gaia and if the brain dies then so does the body. Intelligent life in my opinion is the highest most important and valuable kind of life there is and I could care less how many more time insects make up the biomass then humans. This thread just goes to show the very strong relegious component of enviornmentalism.

There in lies the mistake. To think that humans are the epitomy, that we are so ingenious and thus the most important aspect of the Earth is simply not true. The web of life was around before we came to be. Microbes in the soil, algae in the oceans, terrestrial mammals, everything is connected and dependant on other parts that make the system.

How many species do you think we can lose before the results are made clear? Species are disappearing at an alarming rate. Biodiversity cannot be undervalued. Take a natural system versus a man-made system. We'll use a farm and the native land before the farm. The farm has much fewer species. As a result the system is more prone to instability and needs ammendment to to even function. While the natural land before agriculture has many more species, nutrient cycling is stable, and as a result the whole system is more stable.

"The Universe is hostile, so impersonal. Devour to survive...so it is, so it's always been"

 

[karrie]

There in lies the mistake. To think that humans are the epitomy, that we are so ingenious and thus the most important aspect of the Earth is simply not true.

Well, I was pondering the idea of the earth becoming ill to try to rid itself of us, when I realized that perhaps one could view it as, it's becoming ill to try to save us. Perhaps we're the critically ill system it is trying to correct. When you look at the rise in cancers, and in illnesses like fibromyalgia (which is strikingly similar to Gulf War Disease), it becomes clear that we're contaminated, sickening, and perhaps nearing death from a much more imminent source than earth ridding itself of us.

 

[Tonington]

It is only an analogy, one my brain came up with and I thought it was an interesting line of thought. I mean to think of a disease, there are a number of other factors, like portals of entry. So where did we come in and how does the disease move on? I don't see us as a disease, only that our actions bare semblance to a disease.

I do see our actions making the Earth ill in a matter of speaking. Tissue is being destroyed (ecosystems), the component parts of the tissue are being destroyed (species, symbiotic relationships), at least a bacteria can store it's waste products to be consumed at a later period when all other nutrients are used up (can we do anything positive with CO2, arsenic, CFC/HFC's, dioxins, etc. etc.).

I thought of posting this on the End times scenario, but didn't want to side track that thread, better to have this little thought by itself.

 

[eh1eh]

You're not the first to think that way. And you're right, it is its own idea. (thread) Bravo. Your schooling is paying off already, for society I mean. Expand on your theory, it is sound.:wave: