010199 ANTHROPOLOGIST SYMPOSIUM CALLS HUMAN BEINGS A CANCER INFECTING PLANET
EARTH
The ghost of Thomas Malthus haunted the national meeting of the American
Anthropological Association held a few weeks ago in Philadelphia. Malthus4š Dœ ,
an 18th Century minister, mathematician, and economist, suggested that the
world's food supply could never keep up with population growth. Malthus
predicted world-wide famine, something
that has never materialized.
* Though widely discredited, Malthus spawned generations of progeny who
continue to predict ever more elaborate theories of planetary doom. They
now predict disaster from "omnivorous consumption of nonrenewable
resources, the irreversible destruction of habitats and species, the fouling of
the air and seas and the consequent changes in climate, and
many other effects of the growing human horde."
* Following this line of reasoning was a theory promulgated at the
Philadelphia meeting of American Anthropologists which affirmatively
answered the question "Is the Human Species a Cancer on the Planet?"
Warren Hern, a Colorado abortionist
and the symposium organizer, said he
noticed nearly a decade ago that "aerial and satellite views of urban
centers taken over a period of years boTž d re a striking similarity to
images of cancerous tissue (particularly melanoma) invading the healthy
surrounding tissue." Hern argued that "in many parts of the world the
increase in human numbers is rapid and uncontrolled, that it invades and
destroys habitats, and that by killing off many species it reduces the
differentiation of nature. All of these features are characteristics of
cancerous tumors."
* Also on the panel was Dr. Lynn Margulis of the University of
Massachusetts who coauthored a theory known as the "Gaia Hypothesis"
which says that the earth, like a living organism, deploys giant
feedback mechanisms to maintain an environment hospitable to life. "For millions
of years the earth got along without human beings, " she said,
"and it will do so again. The only question is the nature of the human
demise that has already begun." Gaia is a reference to the worship of
the earth as a goddess.
* These theories are not new. They have appeared in various journals at least
since the mid 1980s. What is new is that a well respected
scientific body like the American Anthropologists would air them. As
recently as four years ago this same symposium was rejected by a
conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At that time it was said by organizers that "you may not ask that
question."
* What may disturb many is that these seemingly scientific assertions
answer the long-time call of some environmentalists for a "culling" of
the human race. A group calling itself Negative Population Growth argues that
the United States, for instance, must reduce its population by 120 billion
people. And only a few weeks ago billionaire Ted Turner called for a world-wide
one-child policy similar to the one in China that practices forced abortion and
coercive sterilization. Last year Turner
pledged US $1 billion for UN population control programs.
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