‘Absolutely stunned’: Sperm counts are falling faster than ever
This scare article on an old topic is just another way of promoting a whole host of irrational Greenie fears about "chemicals" in the environment. Big problem: As far as we can tell, overall sperm counts are NOT declining. See
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-sperm-counts-really-declining/
And the emphasis on sperm counts is outdated anyway. We now know that sperm motility is the crucial factor. Sperm count is a correlate of motility but is not itself the problem. I have always had a low sperm count but had good sperm motility, so had no trouble fertilizing the egg that became my robust sonChemicals in tin can linings, cosmetics, nail polish, teflon pans and flame retardants on cushions have been linked to a steep decline in sperm counts and a potential “crisis in human reproduction”, Australian fertility specialists have been warned.
Sperm counts have fallen 52 per cent in the past five decades – and the decline appears to be speeding up – experts at the 2023 Fertility Society of Australia and New Zealand conference were told this week.
Leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist Dr Shanna Swan has studied the effects of chemicals now common in everyday life and the environment on male fetus development. She was “absolutely stunned” to discover a key reason for falling sperm production was chemicals that can interfere with the body’s hormones.
Chemicals known as phthalates, found in personal care products, fragrances, plastics and even dust, were among those affecting development of baby boys, via the mother’s exposure in early pregnancy, Swan said. Chemicals known as BPAs, found in plastics, were also to blame.
An exposed boy’s future offspring would also likely be affected, said Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
An updated meta-analysis of studies from around the world found sperm counts were declining worldwide “at an even faster rate than we thought”.
“It was about 1 per cent per year since 1972, and from 2000 on, it was 2.64 per cent, which says sperm count is declining at an accelerated rate,” she said.
Swan predicts that by the middle of the century, many more people will rely on reproductive technologies.
Swan said her latest research had accounted for differences in the measurement of sperm.
“[The effects] don’t stop with the pregnant woman, or the pregnant woman’s offspring. The child, in the next generation will be impaired similarly,” she said.
“We have a multigenerational impact, and probably impacts on life expectancy and morbidity [illness] are also going to be there for those children.”
Professor Roger Hart, lead clinician for the Western Australian public fertility service, is part of the world’s oldest longitudinal study of development from pre-birth through to adulthood, the federally funded Raine Study.
He said its findings supported Swan’s.
The University of Western Australia professor and sub-specialist in endocrinology and infertility said just 14.4 per cent of boys born during the study – which began in 1989 with a cohort of almost 3000 women – had sperm counts that met the minimum standard.
One Raine finding was that sperm concentration and motility in the offspring were significantly linked to BPAs in the mother’s blood.
“We found if the boy’s exposure to phthalates was higher in utero, [then] when they were 21 their testicles were significantly smaller. According to how much exposure you had, testicular volume was reduced,” Hart said.
“It is very much in line with Shanna’s [work]; she’s reporting that sperm counts have dropped by half in 50 years ... Obviously, we need to study further to see what the causes [of sperm decline] are – but this is pretty amazing stuff.”
But associate professor Tim Moss, of the not-for-profit men’s health organisation Healthy Male, urged caution in drawing a link between chemical exposure and men’s infertility.
Moss, a former president of the Perinatal Society of Australia and New Zealand, said he believed the studies examined by Swan’s group were limited.
Hart’s work showed effects of BPAs and phthalate exposure were “borderline, if anything; but this does not mean that there is not an effect”, he said.
Moss argued three years ago in The Conversation that the “doomsday scenario” for sperm production suggested in Swan’s original metanalysis had not been adequately proven.
“It’s reasonable to expect chemicals that affect hormone function in our bodies ... could affect reproduction in males and females, given available evidence. But we don’t have irrefutable proof,” he wrote.
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Choking on Canada’s ‘Climate Change’ Smoke
Listen closely, and you can practically hear him say it: You never want a serious Canadian wildfire crisis to go to waste.
No, Rahm Emanuel isn’t whispering into Joe Biden’s ear these days, but those on the Left know well what Barack Obama’s former chief of staff said in the days just after the 2008 election, and they certainly know “an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before” when they see one.
Take Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, for example, who told her 13 million Twitter followers yesterday: “Between NYC in wildfire smoke and this [heat wave] in [Puerto Rico], it bears repeating how unprepared we are for the climate crisis. We must adapt our food systems, energy grids, infrastructure, healthcare, etc ASAP to prepare for what’s to come and catch up to what is already here.”
And in case anyone failed to pick up the “opportunity” she’s driving at, AOC affixed the “GreenNewDeal” hashtag to the end of her message.
At this point, the smoke from at least 233 active Canadian wildfires and 9.4 million charred acres is wreaking havoc on the American air being breathed by 100 million of our fellow citizens. Most of the fires are in western Canada, but some are in Quebec, above New York, and the wind patterns yesterday made New York City’s air the worst of any major city in the world — which is quite a feat, as anyone who’s spent any time in a major Chinese city will tell you.
But that’s not all. According to air quality specialist IQAir, following closely behind the Big Apple are other northeastern cities such as Boston, Buffalo, and Pittsburgh, but the smoke isn’t stopping there. Columbus, Baltimore, Norfolk, Raleigh, Asheville, and even Myrtle Beach are also seeing and feeling the effects. These include air travel delays and cancellations, as well as cancellation of outdoor and even some indoor activities in the affected cities.
But the question remains: Are all these wildfires due to “climate change,” as AOC and her ilk would have us believe?
And the answer already appears to be: No. As the Toronto Sun reports: “Quebec police are investigating the possibility that the smoke creating poor air quality in southern Ontario and making downtown skylines disappear may have been the result of arson. ‘There is an investigation because the cause is suspect,’ said Surtee de Quebec media officer Hugues Beaulieu.”
Most reports blame dry conditions and lightning strikes. In any case, even under the most progressive definition imaginable, arson isn’t climate change.
Sadly, we’ve been down this shamefully politicized road before. In fact, it feels like Groundhog Day. As our Thomas Gallatin wrote back in 2020: “According to Democrats and the mainstream media, the primary culprit for the massive wildfires currently consuming vast swaths of the Pacific Northwest is climate change. However, according to the scientific data accumulated over years of observation, the real reason has little to do with the changing climate and more to do with changes to forestry-management practices instigated by politicians unduly influenced by flawed environmentalist ideology.”
Gallatin went on to identify the real culprit: forest mismanagement, both here in the U.S. and in the vast Canadian wilderness:
Analysis of the historical records show that wildfires regularly burned millions of acres annually in the U.S. up until the late 1950s. Beginning in the 1930s, the U.S. Forest Service, along with state agencies, began efforts to better control and limit the amount of acreage burned annually. Ironically, these efforts to suppress and prevent fires has contributed to the massive fires America is seeing today. The reason is simple: By not being control-burned, these forests have accumulated vast amounts of fuel (overgrowth) and have become literal tinderboxes primed for igniting, whether by lightning or, in many cases, arson.
So, if you’re in one of these smoke-plagued regions, set aside the politics and do four things: Stay inside, to the extent possible; use an air filter if you have one; wear a mask — because smoke particulate is a lot more filterable than a coronavirus; and monitor the air quality in your area.
Oh, and don’t listen to Sandy Cortez and her leftist ilk. They’re just trying to do things they couldn’t do without a convenient crisis
https://patriotpost.us/articles/97929
*****************************************************New York to pass ‘green’ law that could slash jobs — and actually harm the environment
New York is on the brink of a big mistake by banning a class of pesticides critical for farmers.
Legislators, misled by environmental activists, are preparing to pass this week the inaptly named Birds and Bees Protection Act, which would prevent growers from accessing neonicotinoids — some of the safest pesticides, thanks in part to their innovative mode of application through seed coatings rather than spraying.
To make the bill less toxic, legislators amended it to allow neonic sales on a product-by-product basis if the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation provides a written justification for emergency use each year.
But this “solution” will end in disaster for New York’s growers and the food system. How can I predict that? For five years, an identical scenario has been playing out in Europe.
Spoiler alert: This saga ended badly for growers, birds, bees, consumers and the environment — and the same would be true in New York.
Just as the state’s activist-influenced politicians are trying to do, the European Commission in 2018 banned neonicotinoids except for emergency-authorized uses (aka “derogations”).
Anti-pesticide activists spread bee-pocalypse fears among the public, and Green Party members worked in concert to usher in anti-pesticide legislation.
These pesticide derogations were a lifeline for many growers, as there were no other options to stop some pests.
Sugar-beet growers were among those most devastated by the neonic ban.
By 2020, farmers across 10 European Union countries clamored for — and received — 21 derogations to protect their sugar-beet crops from aphids spreading beet yellows virus, a pest that decimated up to 80% of crop yields.
But Europe’s anti-pesticide activists were not satisfied, just as New York’s won’t be. After the first derogations went through — and without any regard for the consequences — they filed lawsuits to annul them.
The European Union Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, ruled this year in favor of the activists and made neonic derogations illegal.
Predictably, Europe’s sugar industry is in serious trouble. Beet weevils are the pest du jour that only neonics can stop. Thus far, they’ve destroyed 40,000 acres and 60,000 tons of sugar in Austria alone. Some growers simply quit growing sugar beets altogether.
Sugar giant Tereos hammered another nail in the coffin by announcing it will close its sugar-refinery operations in France, slashing jobs.
A warning to New York’s agriculture industry: Your crops and livelihoods will also be threatened when the derogations end.
Ironically, bees don’t pollinate sugar-beet plants. They are pollinated by wind, like many of New York’s major crops, including corn, wheat and potatoes.
Other major state vegetable crops, like tomatoes and peppers, are self-pollinated.
Thus the Birds and Bees Protection Act will “protect” bees from pesticide exposure on crops they don’t even care to visit.
Growers in Europe who did have alternatives simply sprayed more pesticides — usually older and less environmentally friendly chemicals.
After the neonic ban, they sprayed pesticides 1.145 million more times per season on bees, birds and the rest of the environment. The same will happen in New York.
Instead of coating seeds with tiny amounts of pesticide and burying them in the ground where birds and bees can’t touch them, farmers will be forced to spray more pesticides indiscriminately aboveground.
These are complicated scientific issues. We need regulatory agencies like the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation to make pesticide decisions, not politicians or the activists pressuring them.
The DEC has the scientific expertise; and so far, it — along with the US Environmental Protection Agency and many other regulatory agencies throughout the world — has determined neonics are safe for farmers to use.
Neonicotinoids are not a major cause of bee death. Experts agree that varroa mites, and the many diseases they spread in the hive, are the primary threat to bees.
Since neonicotinoids were first used in the mid-1990s, honeybee populations have grown by 51,000 colonies in America, and there are nearly 21 million more beehives in the world now than in 2000.
Let’s let this sordid and costly drama stay in Europe. New York politicians should let the state’s qualified environmental regulators make the decisions.
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Gov. Youngkin Puts Virginians First with RGGI Withdrawal
On Wednesday, the Virginia State Air Pollution Board voted 4-3 to remove Virginia from the controversial Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon market.
Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) - who often equated it to a carbon tax - garnered a vital victory here.
“Today’s common sense decision by the Air Board to repeal RGGI protects Virginians from the failed program that is not only a regressive tax on families and businesses across the Commonwealth but also does nothing to reduce pollution,” Youngkin said in a news release. “The Office of the Attorney General has confirmed the State Air Pollution Control Board has the legal authority to take action on the regulatory proposal using the full regulatory process – and today, the Board voted to do just that – furthering Virginians access to a reliable, affordable, clean and growing supply of power.”
Unsurprisingly, Virginia Democrats tried – but failed– to draw a connection between RGGI withdrawal and smoke from Canadian wildfires currently blanketing Virginia.
Their Twitter account tweeted, “BREAKING: Per Gov Youngkin’s directive, the State Air Pollution Control Board withdrew Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Sickly ironic news on a day when the Richmond skyline is blotted out by thick smoke from wildfires.”
Let’s clear the air: After taking office in January 2022, Governor Youngkin issued Executive Order 9 to remove the Commonwealth from this controversial 11-state compact. Virginia entered RGGI following the passage of the Virginia Clean Energy and Flood Preparedness Act of 2020. The law tasked Virginia’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) director to create a carbon market-based trading program.
Former Governor Ralph Northam (D-VA) lauded the move at the time, remarking, “This initiative provides a unique opportunity to meet the urgency of the environmental threats facing our planet while positioning Virginia as a center of economic activity in the transition to renewable energy.”
Why did the Youngkin administration prioritize RGGI withdrawal?
First, RGGI is a flawed entity that delivers few to no environmental returns. As I noted in The Virginian Pilot in January 2022, RGGI doesn’t reduce carbon emissions much. The impact is negligible.
I wrote, “The most notable problem with RGGI is its overall negligible impact on carbon emissions. In 2019, the Congressional Research Service observed that nine partner states “account for approximately 7% of U.S. CO2 emissions and 16% of U.S. gross domestic product” and called carbon emissions reductions “arguably negligible” at best.”
It sounds eerily similar to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing–strategies often delivering a poor return on investment (ROI).
Second, participation in RGGI meant higher utility bills for residences and businesses. A March 2022 Virginia DEQ report found RGGI’s environmental compliance cost would result in a $2.39 monthly increase for residential customers and a $1,554 monthly increase for industrial customers, respectively. Had Virginia remained in the interstate compact, it would cost ratepayers “between $1 billion and $1.2 billion over the next four years.”
Third, RGGI is a carbon tax imposed on producers that ultimately get passed to consumers.
I also discussed this reality in Virginian Pilot, arguing, “Virginians would see diminished purchasing power because they already pay a premium on electricity and gas. Worse, carbon taxes would disproportionately hurt lower-income Virginia households since they rely and depend on carbon-intensive goods and energy sources for sustenance. Electricity costs would skyrocket in more economically depressed regions of the Commonwealth, including southwestern Virginia.”
Virginia can innovate and produce clean energy without subscribing to obtuse decarbonization goals pushed by Democrats and even some Republicans.
Governor Youngkin understood this “carbon market” doesn’t benefit Virginians. On the other hand, his Virginia Energy Plan is an excellent alternative to power the Commonwealth. It does so, minds you, without admonishing coal, oil, gas, or nuclear. Win-win.
The first-term Governor undeniably promised to get Virginia to quit RGGI. Not only does it boost him, but it’s also a good deal for both Virginia consumers and ratepayers. This is an excellent first step, but his energy policy work isn’t done yet.
Next, the Governor should tackle the horrible Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) – or Virginia’s Green New Deal – forced on us by the prior Northam administration and Virginia Democrats. Without question, it absolutely must be repealed. That, however, will require a cooperative General Assembly in Richmond. Should Virginia Republicans flip the State Senate and keep the House of Delegates in November, this could happen.
Until then, kudos to Governor Youngkin for rejecting destructive policies like RGGI wrought by preservationist environmentalism
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My other blogs. Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM )
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Jim Hansen and his twin
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