Another factor to consider is that many of the things we now see "more" of... aren't actually increasing in occurrence rates. We're just WAY better at detecting them.

What would the cancer detection rate have been in 1865 if there were MRI machines? Likely high, given the amount of oil/coal/wood smoke people were exposed to. Instead they were probably all misdiagnosed with "consumption" (tuberculosis) since the symptoms would have been the same.

This is why there is a difference between how correlation and causation are defined... a correlation suggest, but doesn't confirm, a cause. Causation is confirmed by both the observation of a correlation and the elimination of other possible variables.