Probably fertility. It's almost certain that the decreased average sperm count is related to microplastics. It's less clear if it's related to our elevated rate of prostate cancer, but I'm cool with blaming big oil for that, too.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2024
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Asklemmy
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Or the lack of exercise. Or the lack of zinc. Or the obesity epidemic.
Can something be done? Possibly, who knows?
Will something be done? I wouldn't hold my breath.
This isn't the only potentially human civilization-ending event I first heard about this past month, and that doesn't include climate change that we've known about for literally decades, which many of the major players involved including the USA and China still don't seem to care much about even now.
There is a saying: "put your money where your mouth is", meaning that if people want to truly "care" about something - e.g. to be Pro-Life - then we need to actually get up off the couch and do something about what we otherwise claim to but don't really care. For instance we could... I dunno, wear masks when we feel the slightest hint of a respiratory illness coming on - cheap, trivially easy, and can save literal lives. And not to trivialize this, some people truly do care - even as I type this I'm listening to a livestream talking about restoration taking much more effort but yielding much greater results than merely shaming people by pointing out something bad.
However, and a bit ironically, Big Tobacco and Big Oil and Big Sugar and Big Tech and Big Plastic etc. all do this, investing great efforts into stopping efforts to try to stop them. Without equal or greater efforts in opposition... well, like I said, I would not hold my breath.
This isnβt the only potentially human civilization-ending event I first heard about this past month, and that doesnβt include climate change that weβve known about for literally decades, which many of the major players involved including the USA and China still donβt seem to care much about even now.
To be fair, every damn headline is framed as civilisation-ending for clicks. Nuclear war is the only one I can think of that's both fairly plausible and could actually end it. Others are at various significant but lower levels of suck, or are just geologically rare.
In particular, climate change is going to suck hard, and I'll miss coral reefs, but some form of civilisation will endure. I know, someone's going to argue with me, and I look forward to making you move around the goalposts on what "end of civilisation" means.
Otherwise, yeah, you're just right. Humanity runs on apathy.
Yeah, the increasing likelihood of Russia or China using nukes to get their way was what I was thinking, especially with talk that the Western nations might be giving Ukraine the go-ahead to use those weapons to strike within Russia itself.
The plastic sperm issue actually doesn't sound so bad in comparison, bc fertilization treatments might work even if needing to extract outside of the body first. Overall, it still sounds less dangerous to me than e.g. a young woman living in Florida these days without access to money to leave the state for medical care.
I frankly have no idea what to expect about climate change at this point - we've blown far past all the targets and seem now to be in uncharted territory, according to what little I understand. I do notice far fewer birds, bees and other insect life, and I recall hearing how in the Antarctic a few months back there was a single day where the temperature spiked by +70 degrees F (~40Β°C). I can only imagine what that would do to e.g. Texas if it went from already 100 to then 170 degrees, even if only for a few hours. "Coral" is the least of the issue iirc, they were (by virtue of being sensitive) mainly indicators of the actual events, which we won't know until we see it, but scientists are saying that it's no bueno. Anyway, it seems like the changes could wipe out all mammalian life on the planet, but then again maybe not!?:-P i.e. it could be really bad, but it could be less so, we just don't know, and as you said, we mostly barely care ("we" meaning voters, so chiefly Boomers & evangelical Christians, as Trump and the Republican party's biggest bases).
And yet we seem to care a great deal about tHe EcOnOmY tHo - so it's a choice of prioritization to pick what "matters" to us.
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If it makes you feel any better, modern climate and economic studies have shown that even a full scale nuclear war involving every nuclear power at the height of the Cold War and when nuclear stockpiles were far larger than today we still wouldnβt have come very close to actually killing off all the humans on earth, with the vast majority of the casualties being owed to famine in regions that were/are heavily dependent on western fertilizer. Indeed entire nations in the southern hemisphere tend to get through such senecios without much of an direct effect from world war three.
Mostly this change from earlier predictions came from being able rule out the theory of a nuclear winter as climate modeling became more accurate and we could be sure that the secondary fires from such a war could not carry ash into the upper atmosphere in significant quantities, which was practically shown when a climate change fueled wildfire in Australia got so large that it should have been able to carry the ash into the upper atmosphere under nuclear winter theory but none was observed, validating modern climate models.
Also, dispite what some less scrupulous journalists trying to drum up clicks have posted on the Ukraine War, the Russian government itself hasnβt really made any major signaling moves with regards to bringing nukes into the conflict, and indeed has maintained and repeatedly reiterated Putinβs 2010s no first use policy when asked.
Donβt get me wrong, this is not the result of some greater Russian morals or whatever, but just a consequence of the inherent risk that such posturing could lead to nuclear escalation and breaking the nuclear taboo or even just other nations actually believing they plan to, and such scenarios end very badly for Russia in general and Putin in particular.
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Not mine. Mine so big, they got their own municipal recycling program.
unusually enlarged testes are a sign of cancer
Those balls ain't right.
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I'm guessing it's unknown. There's microplastic in testes, and it's not good for fertility. Getting that far probably required a lot of research. Understanding the mechanism and projecting it forwards will require way, way more.
Think of the profits corporations will be able to make curing the impacts of this!
It's irreversible at this point and nothing you can do except hope it won't affect your health.
It's only fair that it's happening to humans since we are destroying the planet.
It's also happening to practically every other animal, and some of them were more sensitive to the effects before people.
Preliminary testes have suggested it will be an issue, but we need another few rounds of testes to be sure.
Please send any testes you have laying around to PO box 609 for testing.
For science!
I tried but the post office sent some nasty email about some dude they called Inspector General. I think it got autocorrected from Inspector Gadget but whatever, apparently they frown on the unfrozen body parts thing.
Well perhaps the microplastics will reduce the overall fertility rate of the human population at large. Perhaps life itself will get so difficult for the average person, they'll be discouraged from having babies, and perhaps only then will the worst effects of climate change will be narrowly averted...maybe.
One of the worst things you can do to the environment folks. Don't bear children. Don't invite another being into this madness and suffering.
I saw it articulated as "the greenest thing anyone can do is not have kids." Pretty cynical, but also true. Unfortunately, there tends to be a lot of overlap between truth and cynicism.
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My fear is not enough to be noticeable. More than enough to matter.
Ancient romans and lead pipes come to mind
Soon we will all be plastic. Its already in our food and water.
What i really think about is these are only the effects so far from the plastics that have started to break down from when plastics were created (smaller quantities). What happens when the plastics of today start to break down (larger quantities).
Kind of like the effects of oil (air pollution) being felt 30-50 years down the line.
Not a problem for 50% of humans.
On the upside - they won't be as harmful as the PFAS in our systems.
On the downside - they'll still probably be harmful.
Mother nature - y'all motherfuckers are on your own.
DOW CEO - hey maybe the PFAS will eradicate the microplastic cancers! This could be win win, let's see what happens!
Experiments in rats have found that once plastic is introduced to their environment, their ability to reproduce declines drdmstically. Genitalia are smaller, slerm rates lower. And the effect compounds and grows generation after generation, getting worse and worse so long as plastic is consumed.
Studies have also shown that human fertility (regarding actual physical ability to reproduce, not the choice of whether to do so) has dropped dramatically genetation on generation since the rise of plastics
^slerm
once plastic is introduced to their environment, their ability to reproduce declines drdmstically.
Their ability to communicate goes down too, apparently π
not me I'm getting them removed lmao
Well we'll find out soon enough π
We'll just have to chew more.
I finally got a good paying job, by wife is starting to move up at her's and we could finally afford to have kids (with support from our families) Then plastic balls memes start
Nah, it's mostly anti plastic propaganda. However, being fat and sedentary, now that is a real problem.
Anti plastic propaganda is a hilarious sentiment. I'm sure it exists, but we aren't meant to have plastic in our testicles.
Being fat and sedentary is also a problem, but two (or more) problems can exist and all require attention.
Gotta ask how long were they there before anyone noticed
So this is where all those plastic babies in King Cakes are coming from..
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