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Re: The Limits To Growth
In <01bbd9ab$03898600$89d0d6cc@micron-p133> "Mike Asher"
<masher@tusc.net> writes:
>Many cancer rates are dropping. Some are rising. This is hardly
>surprising, as we steadily cure new diseases and reduce accidental
death
>rates. Since we all die sometime, it follows that other death rates
*must*
>rise to compensate.
There is a hidden assumption here: that progress in curing
or preventing cancer is less rapid than the progress in
preventing death from other causes. For some forms of
cancer, this is of course true. But logically, it
need not be true.
There is another hidden assumption: that the total
decrease in mortality is either zero or at least
insufficient to reduce mortality from all
causes simultaneously. Yet mortality could,
in principle, be falling fast enough for
that - even though we all die sometime,
we can postpone deah longer and longer.
Longevity *is* mounting. This is one
reason, however, for the increase in some
cancer rates - cancer afflicts older people
more than it does the young...
References: