The Guardian: The Plastics and Pollution Crisis will Shrink Your Penis

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

The effort to find a replacement for the dying climate crisis has plumbed new depths.

Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity

Erin Brockovich
Thu 18 Mar 2021 21.23 AEDT

The chemicals to blame for our reproductive crisis are found everywhere and in everything

The end of humankind? It may be coming sooner than we think, thanks to hormone-disrupting chemicals that are decimating fertility at an alarming rate around the globe. A new book called Countdown, by Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, finds that sperm counts have dropped almost 60% since 1973. Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045. Zero. Let that sink in. That would mean no babies. No reproduction. No more humans. Forgive me for asking: why isn’t the UN calling an emergency meeting on this right now?

The chemicals to blame for this crisis are found in everything from plastic containers and food wrapping, to waterproof clothes and fragrances in cleaning products, to soaps and shampoos, to electronics and carpeting. Some of them, called PFAS, are known as “forever chemicals”, because they don’t breakdown in the environment or the human body. They just accumulate and accumulate – doing more and more damage, minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. Now, it seems, humanity is reaching a breaking point.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/mar/18/toxic-chemicals-health-humanity-erin-brokovich

Erin Brokovich was the subject of a famous Julia Roberts Hollywood movie which dramatised Erin’s successful pursuit of PG&E over a groundwater contamination scandal.

Obviously we must take this new threat seriously. The United Nations needs to establish a monitoring mission to assess… Nah, I can’t say it 🙂

Please keep comments and quips family friendly.

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Bruce Cobb
March 25, 2021 4:59 am

I was in the pool!

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
March 25, 2021 8:41 am

That’s what “Seinfields” character, George, was screaming after he was accidentally spotted naked after going for a swim. Elaine saw him and started laughing and poor George was making excuses.

That was pretty funny.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
March 25, 2021 9:47 am

… wasn’t Elaine. But later in the show Jerry did explain to her about shrinkage. She didn’t know about it.

Elaine:
It shrinks?
Jerry:
Like a frightened turtle!
Elaine:
Why does it shrink?
George Costanza:
It just does.
Elaine:
I don’t know how you guys walk around with those things.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  DonM
March 25, 2021 12:18 pm

Yes, you’re right. I forgot that part.

March 25, 2021 5:17 am

If I look arond, “thanks” Cov-19, I see a lot of (more than earlier) baby carriages.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Krishna Gans
March 25, 2021 8:43 am

Well, if you work at it hard enough, 73 percent is probably sufficient.

Neo
Reply to  Krishna Gans
March 26, 2021 7:05 am

Can’t we just move on to Trivid-20 or Quadvid-21

March 25, 2021 5:41 am

Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045.”

This is just as stupid as ‘research’ saying women would soon be faster runners than men (yes, I read this in a major newspaper in the ’90s) because their 100M world records improved at a faster pace in the 20th century than men’s.

Tom in Florida
Reply to  Tom in Toronto
March 25, 2021 6:19 am

I wonder who the little prick was that did the research.

LdB
Reply to  Tom in Toronto
March 25, 2021 7:14 pm

Hey it’s the same stupidity in climate science with sea level rise, having a trend is meaningless because there are physical limits. However for a good scare story just ignore reality and go full retard.

PaulH
March 25, 2021 5:42 am
Rah
Reply to  PaulH
March 25, 2021 6:16 am

The US is trending back towards vinyl also.

SMC
March 25, 2021 5:52 am

I don’t understand why this is a problem./sarc Isn’t one of the goals of lords and masters of the universe to reduce the human population to a ‘sustainable’ level?

March 25, 2021 6:00 am

Childhood’s End – Great book!

Reply to  Rob Gappa
March 25, 2021 8:57 am

Clarke’s masterpiece, IMO.

Beta Blocker
March 25, 2021 7:02 am

Concerning fears about the spread of small radioactive particles from a nuclear meltdown incident, and the potential health effects on the human population — the analogy as been drawn by health physicists that there is enough sperm in an average man’s semen to impregnate every woman of child bearing age in the United States. However, there is no credible delivery scenario.

Rod Evans
Reply to  Beta Blocker
March 25, 2021 7:30 am

Its been fun experimenting with direct research into this though.:)

Richard Page
Reply to  Beta Blocker
March 25, 2021 11:10 am

Reminds me of the old joke: 2 bulls are standing at the top end of the field overseeing the herd. The younger bull turns to the older one and says “Let’s run down there and f@*# a cow.” The older one replies “No, let’s walk down there and f@*# them all!”

March 25, 2021 7:20 am

Personally, I have always asserted there is great difficulty, ahem, erecting a tribute to the so-called “climate crisis”.

Charles Higley
March 25, 2021 7:53 am

Just as they claimed that herbicides and pesticides would become estrogenic compounds in farm soils, which would then feminize our males, it never happened. It is ingenuous to ignore the fact that some of these chemicals do become estrogenic forms, but bacterial processes continue to further break down these chemicals, such that the estrogenic forms do not persist or accumulate.

The same is true of plastics. To make a general statement about such a wide range of chemicals is to be simple-minded. As with many chemicals in our environment, the toxicity is in the dose. If the chemicals in question do not accumulate and also turnover, no problem. It has been found that the only way to have consistent numbers of microplastics in birds is to continue feeding them with these particles. Such a consistent diet is not natural and does not mimc the real world.

Also, the fact we are even talking about microplastics means that plastics are breaking down naturally. Bacteria love a free lunch and one will evolve to eat any given plastic.

Drake
March 25, 2021 8:02 am

There is a US movie about this type of thing. A Boy and His Dog It starred a young Don Johnson before Miami Vice fame.

A fun little post apocalyptical flick. I mean we are in an ongoing apocalypse aren’t we? So 2045 would hopefully be post?

Neo
Reply to  Drake
March 26, 2021 7:07 am

In a couple of weeks, the jammed ship in the Suez will have produced an apocalypse

Editor
Reply to  Neo
March 29, 2021 12:46 pm

Neo ==> Now freed at last

Tom Abbott
March 25, 2021 8:29 am

From the article: “A new book called Countdown, by Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, finds that sperm counts have dropped almost 60% since 1973. Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045. Zero. Let that sink in. That would mean no babies. No reproduction. No more humans. Forgive me for asking: why isn’t the UN calling an emergency meeting on this right now?”

I know I’m going to get in trouble for this.

It looks like some of the older, single guys, may have a new job of repopulating humanity.

Gary Ashe
March 25, 2021 9:01 am

That will put ”planned parenthood” out of business.
Funny really progressive liberals worrying about fertility, when they murder most [ millions ] of their unborn in the womb any way.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Gary Ashe
March 25, 2021 12:21 pm

I saw Virginia’s Democrat governor proudly signing a law yesterday eliminating the death penalty in criminal cases.

Now the governor needs to sign a law eliminating the death penalty for the unborn in Virginia.

Grant
March 25, 2021 9:23 am

If you read the article, the researcher blames ‘chemicals’ in our environment, birth control, obesity, earlier puberty in girls and unhealthy lifestyle choices. This is the usual dreck we can alway expect from pseudo journalism

Dmacleo
March 25, 2021 10:36 am

too late. now I know who to blame though.

Jim BROWN
March 25, 2021 10:38 am

The best part of this article is the assumption that the “climate crisis” is dying. I hope that is true! The intellectual argument for catastrophic global warming has been bankrupt for years. But religions persist, even destructive ones.

March 25, 2021 10:40 am

Predictive programming? These Bolshies are getting good! They are learning from our ridiculing their obvious hogwash vis a vis global warming and suchlike, so now they start “predicting” their desired outcomes, so that, in 25 yaers’ time, they can point at “extant consensus science” to prove they did no nuffin’ wrong, look, “experts have known this for decades already”.

ResourceGuy
March 25, 2021 10:42 am

Level 4 financial desperation

Robert of Texas
March 25, 2021 11:01 am

The only thing that shrinks my pe**s is getting out of the shower into a cold room. Luckily it’s reversable.

The article actually says it reduces fertility. That might be a good thing, especially in poor over-populated areas.

I have a feeling that plastics are not the only thing involved (if they are actually involved at all). Once again, I am willing to bet the true answer is much more complex then the scientists studying the phenomenon think.

Nature is so wonderfully complex – but scientists insist every square piece of it be tucked into a round cubbyhole.

Greg
March 25, 2021 11:35 am

Oh, I’d noticed it was shrinking, I thought it was due to lack of use. I feel reassured now I know what the real cause is.

Joe Who
March 25, 2021 1:01 pm

It all seems very strange that population will decline and reach “net zero”(this is the new catch phrase) by 2045, when all indications show we are skyrocketing towards 8 billion people well before that.
Everyone knows, but won’t address the issue, that human population growth is out of control.
Each and every day net population growth is over 350,000 world wide.
A little slowly of this rate would be healthy.

MM from Canada
March 25, 2021 5:27 pm

“… hormone-disrupting chemicals…
Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045. Zero. Let that sink in. That would mean no babies. No reproduction. No more humans.”

Call me crazy, but if sperm counts are indeed declining, maybe – just maybe – it has something to do with the fact that soy is present in virtually *every* prepared food on the market.

Trust me on this one – I’ve read more labels than I can count in the last 3 years. And soy mimics estrogen.

goracle
March 25, 2021 7:36 pm

when the wife asks, now I have an excuse that I can point to … thanks.

March 25, 2021 7:54 pm

I’m in the process of reading/rereading several books the main thrust of which is the effect they have on human brains at every stage throughout our lives. Most people know of pre and post menopausal problems experienced by women and caused by hormones but few people seem to be aware of the critical effects of floods of hormones on both male and female at various times throughout their lives. Exposure to testereone in the first few weeks following conception mean that male brains are visibly different from female brains and later exposure in puberty make them operate in a different fashion. Mistiming of hormonal exposure can result in male brains in female bodies and vice versa. Mistiming of another kind can result in male brains with female programming and vice versa. Again hormones seem to be responsible for sexual preferences i.e heterosexuality vs homoosexuality.

The various man made hormones and hormone-like chemical loose in the wild are having measurable effects and not only just on humans. This is not a subject fit only for laughing at. In the long term the unintentional mucking up with the chemicals which control so much of life may turn out to be greater existential threat than the imaginary threats of global warming.

I don’t think we should be laughing at it.

Olen
March 26, 2021 7:49 am

Yet normal children are still being born. Are we to give up those products when some are saying there are too many people.

March 26, 2021 10:11 am

Isn’t this a GOOD thing? No more humans left to pollute the planet! If we’re so terrible for the planet, this is something to celebrate.