Path to extinction? Sperm count accelerates its decline
www.resilience.org
Humans could disappear from planet Earth without even a whimper, that is, the whimper of new babies as the human sperm count keeps plummeting.

“Why is this in late stage capitalism?” Besides the pants-shittingly dystopian news, the article points out that some factors include things like environmental issues and obesity, and guess which economic system is largely to blame for those things?

  • loathesome dongeaterA
    16·
    2 years ago

    Well it says that:

    Between 1973 to 2018, the concentration of sperm in men not known to be infertile fell by more than 51%, from 101.2 million to 49 million sperm per millimetre of semen, the new study found.

    If someone were paranoid it would seem pretty doomer. At worst you would expect birthrates to be halved over these years. But this is far from the case. Birth rates are still a factor of development and living conditions rather than any biological bottleneck.

    The study, led by Israeli epidemiologist Hagai Levine, updates 2017 research which had come under scrutiny for only including North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

    This is just great replacement theory in the garb of a scientific article.

    Since the news website really wanted me to credit them:

    Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2438659/sperm-count-is-declining-at-accelerating-rate-worldwide-study. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post PCL. All rights reserved.

    Meanwhile the author:

    Kurt Cobb is a freelance writer and communications consultant who writes frequently about energy and environment. His work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Common Dreams, Le Monde Diplomatique, Oilprice.com, OilVoice, TalkMarkets, Investing.com, Business Insider and many other places. He is the author of an oil-themed novel entitled Prelude and has a widely followed blog called Resource Insights. He is currently a fellow of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions.

    He is hardly an expert in this field. You shouldn’t take points like this from cranks.

    • ProleEntelechy
      6·
      2 years ago

      If someone were paranoid it would seem pretty doomer. At worst you would expect birthrates to be halved over these years. But this is far from the case

      Once sperm counts are above 40-50 million/ml, more doesn’t necessarily mean a higher chance of conception. However, once you drop below that amount, the probability of conception starts dropping off rapidly as sperm counts fall. The implications of this being that there shouldn’t be any noticeable trends in birthrate tied to sperm counts for now. Since the concentration is falling at an accelerated pace, this may soon have a noticeable impact on society.

      There has been some research into potential causes, and I personally believe that it’s due to “endocrine disrupters” such as phthalates, PCBs, PFAS, BPA, BPS, and others. Since humans stand at the top of the food pyramid, all of these chemicals are accumulating within us. I don’t think there’s any escaping this; this is likely one of the possible Great Filters.

      • loathesome dongeaterA
        6·
        2 years ago

        Once sperm counts are above 40-50 million/ml, more doesn’t necessarily mean a higher chance of conception.

        This seems to be true from two research papers I skimmed through.