If too much exposure to the sun causes cancer, how are there still any fair-skinned people on earth? For the vast majority of human history, we didn’t have sunblock. Shouldn’t we gingers be extinct by now?

Question

If too much exposure to the sun causes cancer, how are there still any fair-skinned people on earth? For the vast majority of human history, we didn’t have sunblock. Shouldn’t we gingers be extinct by now?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The further away from the equator the lighter your skin tone. It allows you to absorb more vitamin D (if I remember rightly) because there’s less sun in those areas so skin cancer wasn’t much of a
Problem until we started shifting ourselves round the globe… or something like that.