Still have this sun issue on my mind. The challenge in commenting on virtually anything is that almost everything is in context & there is an exception to nearly every rule (even this one). In the case of melanoma, there is hesitation here... and a sensitivity to people who that is a reality for. With that said, if I had to speculate about skin cancer, I would agree with those who say the cause is not the sun.
I would say the cause is Quick Change. This quick change comes in many forms and sometimes is complex b/c there are multiple changes interacting, sometimes perhaps to produce false leads.
True that quick changes may include quick changes in migration patterns... in other words, moving ourselves to areas of the world that have different levels of light than we are personally/culturally adapted to.
But quick change also has occurred as our diets have radically changed, along with levels of skin protective nutrients and other factors, such as inflammation, that may be a big factor in our interaction with the sun.
Another quick change that people point out is that we are coating our permeable skin with brand new chemicals, that often have no pre-existing relationship with the skin... some of which, it seems, may as well be from another planet.
If someone is going to travel to another planet, s/he is going to have to take into account a lack of personal, direct relationship with the air, the organisms, the chemicals. Just as one would naturally hesitate before snatching up a soil sample from returning astronauts to rub all over one's body... before tossing it into a bowl and eating it with a spoon.
And there are wild card changes we have immersed ourselves in, such as new high stress environments and high stress social patterns, extreme exposure to florescent lights (low quality, artificial light with unknown consequence, not to mention the low quality light coming from the computer I am sitting at right now) and, of course, alterations of extreme lack of sun & extreme exposure to sun.
Sunlight though has a relationship with the body/mind. It links up with us & has a relationship with the pituitary gland. It helps place us in this awesome rhythm with bio-cycles and in harmony with the system. It helps to prevent cancer through proper utilization of vitamin D (and whatever other aspects of light science will catch up with in a hundred years)
Removing the sun from the equation seems to be a giant, much more significant Quick Change with implications that are enormous.
It seems we tend to bark up the wrong tree and get caught up in the little old lady that swallowed a spider situation by trying to solve a problem by way of eating a bigger one.
This reminds me of running. Running isn't bad for the body per se, but it can be bad for a misaligned body, which is what most westerners have. The problem then may relate to running and may require moderation of running, but the misalignment cannot be ignored.
And perhaps the worst thing is to eliminate any type of body motion whatsoever, which could only lead to atrophy. I think we could stand to get back to basics by observing whatever tribal people are left healthy and in tact (and I think there are few).
We may not be exactly like the indigenous individual. In fact we may be like travelers, who have culture shock both away and upon returning home, but it is a start.
Otherwise we are like western medicine treating symptom after symptom, causing more and more side affects, drifting forever from the basics and the underlying condition.
Maybe a person is more fair and needs less sun, and maybe Iceland and other places provide some of sunlight's benefits in other ways, mostly dietary, but as a general rule, I'd agree that we've over done the avoidance of the sun issue.
The solution... perhaps to identify the quick changes & negate them when possible (bring back what we took away, detox foreign agents when necessary, treat with theraputic doses when appropriate to get back to baseline & cover the rest with energy-work modalities, meditation, focused intent slash prayer slash use of the placebo effect.
This may, of course, include removing the sunburn-inducing pattern of severe avoidance alternating with extreme exposure. This may include moderation of sunlight to match one's ideal, historic, environment.
When we find those quick changes, we may gradually un-build the superficial framework, which offers inferior support, and get back to ground. From there we can make a true determination as to the sun's true contribution to the problem.
When contemplating cancer, we might get about negotiating the quick changes in play, and all we do to enact them, rather than crossing the line and performing immoral tests on animals in the interest of new drugs that often do more harm than good.
It seems the same principles apply to most environmental issues and nearly every other problem. In general, it may be good to get in harmony with the slowly changing system... not to say that quick changes aren't natural or that quantum leaps can't take place, but most quick changes do not seem necessarily to invite quantum leaps... and getting back to ground, so to speak, seems like a bright idea.
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