Humans are a Cancer of the Earth Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Arg

Humans are a Cancer of the Earth Earth has undeniably suffered a rapid deterioration in health over the past few centuries. The symptoms of her illness, including global warming, water pollution, and deforestation, are ever-increasing and cannot be ignored. Dr. William Hern believes he has discovered the culprit behind this malady: Homo ecophagus, a newly-coined label for the present day humans that are devouring the environment in cancer-like fashion (Dr. William Hern, p. 8). His diagnosis involves drawing parallels between a malignant neoplasm and humans. My immediate reaction after reading this thesis was to reject a proposal that so debased the human race and exacted such a harsh blow to every human's ego. Upon further consideration, however, Hern's reasoning becomes less blatantly offensive and more plausible. Although his argument and its correlating implications contain some contradictions, his overall points appear regrettably compelling and difficult to refute. By medical definition, a malignant neoplasm is diagnosed on the basis of four main qualities: unrestrained growth, consumption of surrounding tissues, spreading to satellite regions and de-differentiation of cells. According to Dr. Hern, the human population reflects each of these characteristics in some way. He anchors his argument by systematically linking each of these four cancer indicators to the effect of humans on their environment. A summary of his points include the following: 1) Unrestrained Growth: Over the past two thousand years, the entire human population has displayed J-shaped growth, a model that demonstrates no leveling of growth rate in the proximate future (Southwick, 159). Through estimates of agricultural and energy resource cons... ...ntel's argument against the invincibility of the tech fix is thus more persuasive than Hern's perspective on the matter. This weakness in Hern's argument, however, does not rob his argument of its validity. The value of Hern's thesis lies in its capacity to clarify an otherwise vague concept - the scope of human damage to Earth - to the identifiable destructive properties of cancer. If nothing else, such a stinging view of human beings serves as a sharp warning, a red flag to call our attention to our destructive methods. Â   REFERENCES: Hern, Dr. Warren. "Why Are There So Many of Us?" http://www.drhern.com/fulltext/why/paper.html Southwick, Charles H., Ch. 15 from "Global Ecology in Human Perspective" Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, pp. 159-182. Pimentel, David. "Impact of Population Growth on Food Supplies and Environment." http://www.dieoff.org/page57.htm