Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Tech & Science

Op-Ed: Sperm count crash, could be zero by 2045 — This is not a drill

Unmarried women in China are also largely barred from accessing assisted reproductive technologies including in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment or sperm banks - AFP
Unmarried women in China are also largely barred from accessing assisted reproductive technologies including in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment or sperm banks - AFP

Brockovich is talking about a book called appropriately enough, Countdown by a reproductive science expert called Shanna Swan. That 60% figure didn’t come out of thin air. One of the projections is a zero average sperm count by (2045. Use your toes and fingers, policy people.)
Women aren’t doing much better. The 35-year-old female is actually less fertile than her grandmother. The fertility hits are across the board, and the net result is plummeting human fertility on a global scale.
Why?
Mainly chemicals, according to Swan. All those wasted years of telling people poisons and hormonal Russian roulette weren’t good for people are coming around again.
I’m not about to regurgitate Brockovich’s article. Read it. If you think World War 3 and global warming are fun, you’ll love it. Even a genocidal lunatic couldn’t wipe out the entire human race; this could.
To translate for the Superior Beings In Pointless, Endless, Meetings:
The humansy-wumansy racey-wacey goesy-woesy bye-byes in a few decadesy-wecadesy. God how I loathe management science-speak.
How? Guess.
Just think of it as being another opportunity to be as totally useless as you invariably are, guys. The political and corporate Zombie Disneyland in which these omni-whammy things have been inflicted on humanity hasn’t helped. The entire food chain is a virtual toxic waste rest home, and the rest of the environment, too.
The mindless acceptance and tolerance of anything and everything which can be sold to anyone, lethal or otherwise, has done nothing for human biosecurity.
Non-expertise is a big, destructive, factor in policy. The criminally clueless are calling the shots. The same dazzling level of thought and decision applies as it does to everything else nobody is doing anything about. That’s pretty much everything.
What to do about it?
So much for the weather report. Meanwhile:
• The need is to get these damn chemicals, many of which are functional antiques, out of the environment, ASAP.
• 24 years isn’t a very long time for anything on this global scale.
• Some level of significant population downturn is likely to hit the fan, even if countermeasures start immediately. That means a massive economic and social risk.
• Awareness needs to start NOW. The male fertility thing has been around for years, and barely mentioned at all. It just wasn’t news. People need to know the problem to manage the problem. (Impeccable logic.)
• The tolerance of breaches of biosecurity must stop, immediately. The fact is that manufacturers budget billions for compliance fines, and they still do this much damage. “Do it right or get shut down” may be the only option. Given the sheer arrogance and insularity of this type of management, not much else might work.
• Artificial insemination can’t do much on any scale. There simply aren’t, and won’t be, enough sperm.
• “Being born in a box” and similar measures won’t do a lot any time soon, either. The tech exists, at least in theory, but staging a global version of Brave New World is massive high cost and high maintenance at best and would take decades to implement.
• Future generations will need strict monitoring to see if their fertility improves. If not, things are likely to be grimmer than grim. If they can’t breed to at least some credible level, it’s You Lose time. Maybe future tech can do the job, but who knows? This is likely to be very difficult work, if not actually impossible.
Humanity is about to get a big, permanent, F in self-management in 24 years. This isn’t a train wreck it’s going to be easy to walk away from. I can see a massive public relations exercise, “Extinction is good for you”, “extinction helps the bottom line”, etc.
Just one more suggestion – Can we lose the various lunatics and idiots running things? This is a survival issue. Morons not required. It will help.

Avatar photo
Written By

Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.

You may also like:

Tech & Science

The groundbreaking initiative aims to provide job training and confidence to people with autism.

Tech & Science

Microsoft and Google drubbed quarterly earnings expectations.

Business

Catherine Berthet (L) and Naoise Ryan (R) join relatives of people killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 Boeing 737 MAX crash at a...

Entertainment

Steve Carell stars in the title role of "Uncle Vanya" in a new Broadway play ay Lincoln Center.