Lets Give it Cancer!

[Firoth]

Personally I like more trees better, which does the same job.

The problem with trees (or, rather, us) is that we're taking up all the room where the trees are supposed to be. That's why I figured algae. There's lots of water, and we're not doing anything with it except pulling out life and dumping in trash. Why not grow the plants there?

 

[Firoth]

Sorry if this sounds condescending, but the last thing I want to root for to save the planet is cancer.

Lol, no argument on that here.

 

[kenjamen]

wow this is actually an informed and interesting discussion about an interesting topic. That's awesome. Wish I had something to add honestly but I don't know much about cancer. I have red hair so I'll probably get melanoma later and I can learn all about it. It'll be fun

 

[The Austin]

How about we just stop dumping shit into the ocean and let it build up naturally?

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm trying to keep things rational in here. Your crazy hippie talk wont get us anywhere.

You just made me laugh. HARD.

 

[Firoth]

Well, there's a lot of empty ocean out there, we could (attempt to) isolate it to those areas of vastness, then only the things that normally thrive in those conditions would be effected.

Really? Where?
To my knowledge, most of the ocean is filled with life & even if you found any empty section, water moves.

Ok, it's not exactly EMPTY, but, there's a lot of it. Meaning to say, that the area could be avoided by that which it would harm. And, I realize it moves, that's why I said 'attempt.' maybe make...algae farms or something that could be moved back into place.

Or vats?

Having them in the ocean sounds too risky to me. The algae could get out & you could have an algal bloom, it wouldn't grow as well as it could & it would be much more expensive.

I'd prefer a great big bucket, if we're going to have algae.

But, then it's not helping out it's ecosystem, by increasing the populations we're destroying. Perhaps if we added what we grow to the natural blooms when they occur, things wouldn't get out of hand.

 

[Eumersian]

wow this is actually an informed and interesting discussion about an interesting topic. That's awesome. Wish I had something to add honestly but I don't know much about cancer. I have red hair so I'll probably get melanoma later and I can learn all about it. It'll be fun

You haven't been here long have you? Willkommen.

 

[Littaly]

For some reason this thread just cracks me up ^^

You know what, this would probably make a half-decent Mythbusters episode!

 

[Firoth]

wow this is actually an informed and interesting discussion about an interesting topic. That's awesome. Wish I had something to add honestly but I don't know much about cancer. I have red hair so I'll probably get melanoma later and I can learn all about it. It'll be fun

"Informed" might be a tad generous. At least on my part. Bet you weren't expecting this when you read the title though.

 

[Eumersian]

wow this is actually an informed and interesting discussion about an interesting topic. That's awesome. Wish I had something to add honestly but I don't know much about cancer. I have red hair so I'll probably get melanoma later and I can learn all about it. It'll be fun

"Informed" might be a tad generous. At least on my part. Bet you weren't expecting this when you read the title though.

It's all the little things we have to contribute. So if we're not at least informed about the ideas plausibility, we are informed on everybody's opinions on it.

 

[enzilewulf]

I say lets all build a big space ship, Burn the Earth, and watch the flames and the beauty of the burning world while I beat you all to death secretly to conserve oxygen. No, I am not to sure how this would affect the air, but I don't know much on cancer to tell you the truth.

 

[Firoth]

I can't tell you the exact path along the food chain it takes, but the algae is dying because the polar ice is melting (some microbial thing takes its food from the ice, I've read all this somewhere but it's sketchy) & this is causing a ripple effect throughout the oceans. Adding in more algae is pointless unless its food source is increased in proportion. For that, we need the poles to cool.

Well, bunk, I figured with algae being plants that they only need sunlight and water and such, and that they were the bottom of the food chain.

 

[Furious Styles]

Well, you could always try this...

Dammit! Ninja'd.

"Ah! Stop that!"

Fuckin love south park canadians

 

[emeraldrafael]

Ok, before we begin, I'd like for it to be known that this comes from a near complete lack of understanding as to how cancer works, and a limited understanding of algae. Ready? Too bad, lets go!

So, from what I do understand, algae is very important. It creates somewhere around 75% of the Oxygen in the atmosphere, and is the basis of the food chain for most of our watery ecosystems (like grass is on land). Now, supposedly, there's some type of algae shortage in the world. Caused by I have no clue, and by how much I don't know, but, that's not the important thing here (my idea would still stand, regardless). And, it might be playing a part in the vast drops in marine life population across the world, in addition to all our overfishing and pollution/destruction of habitats.

Now that we've gotten all the "things" that I "know" out of the way, lets dive into my ignorance...What if we found a way to give algae cancer, as a means of creating a huge bloom in quantity? As far as I'm aware, cancer (or, maybe just some types of it) causes cells to constantly reproduce, instead of only reproducing some set amount of times, or with disregard to resources or something. As far as I am also aware, algae, or at least most forms of it, are single cell plants or plant-like things. Wouldn't this result in a huge bloom of algae? And wouldn't that, in turn, cause a huge explosion in marine life populations, starting all the way at the bottom of the chains, and a huge boost to the amount of Oxygen in the atmosphere?

So, what do you think?
Can algae even get cancer?
If it could, do you think we'd be able to find a way to do so on a grand enough scale that it would matter?
If we did, would the algae even continue to serve it's purpose?
Would the animals that feed off of it get cancer as a result, and so on, up the food chain?

I'd like to reiterate that I am not a biologist, I am not a doctor, I am not a botanist, and I am not an ecologist.

Cancer is an abnormalty in a cell. It makes the cell do something its not supposed to, as well as makes more cells grow that do what they arent supposed to and poisons the body. So, i'm sure if large enough groups, algea could get cancer. god help us if it does go on a grand scale. I'm not sure if animals feeding on algea and the animals that feed on those naimals would get cancer. But, algea would not serve its purpose. For all we know, you would change it so drastically, that algea would instead put out Carbon Dioxide and take in Oxygen, killing everyone.

So no, Lets NOT give algea cancer and LETS give you the dance hat of the decade for making such a statement full of retardity.

 

[oppp7]

No, look up algal blooms to see why rapidly growing algae is a bad idea.

The best solution is to find out what's causing the shortage and stop it.

 

[icyneesan]

Well if we try to give Algae cancer, can we give something the T-virus just for the hell of it?

Also if Algae are some sort of cell thing, could we give them stem cells or what?

Note; I am clueless about Algae, Cancer, Stem cells and the T-Virus

 

[Firoth]

So no, Lets NOT give algea cancer and LETS give you the dance hat of the decade for making such a statement full of retardity.

Thank you for taking this good-hearted discussion and bringing insults into it. I was wondering how long it would take.

 

[Firoth]

Well if we try to give Algae cancer, can we give something the T-virus just for the hell of it?

Also if Algae are some sort of cell thing, could we give them stem cells or what?

Note; I am clueless about Algae, Cancer, Stem cells and the T-Virus

I say we give it to frogs, since they don't actually have teeth. I'd love to see them try to gum something to death.

For the stem cell thing: They're trying to not even let us use those for medical purposes, why would they let us grow plants with them? (Note: I am not happy about this)

 

[Plurralbles]

the problem is algal blooms rock the ecosystem they're in, fuck up the water & kill off a lot of other life.

Algae would kill all the marine life by depriving them of oxygen.

all algae is harmful in large quantities. So no, I think this idea doesn't help anyone and might just destroy the planet.

Well, there's a lot of empty ocean out there, we could (attempt to) isolate it to those areas of vastness, then only the things that normally thrive in those conditions would be effected.

sadly the ocean isn't as big and capable of being isolated as you'd think. It's really interconnected and animals will do everything that you dont' want them to do.

 

[Firoth]

No, look up algal blooms to see why rapidly growing algae is a bad idea.

The best solution is to find out what's causing the shortage and stop it.

But, it happens in nature all the time. All I'm suggesting is that we add to what already occurs in nature, and how would that be any different from what would happen if we stopped what was causing the shortage?

 

[Firoth]

and animals will do everything that you don't want them to do.

Beyond true -_-