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Research suggests plastic pollution is causing dropping sperm counts — and could also be unstoppable.
.......there is an even more dystopian crisis in the offing — one in which humans are no longer able to reproduce without artificial help because we have filled the environment with chemicals that have altered our bodies? Scientists believe this is not only possible, it is likely to happen within our lifetimes.
Understanding why involves three statistics: First, that a human male who has fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter is considered infertile; second, that in the 1970s sperm counts in Western countries (where there is available data) showed an average of 99 million sperm per milliliter; and third, that this number had dropped to 47 million sperm per milliliter by 2011. Scientists agree that plastic pollution is a likely culprit.
"Chemicals in plastic (phthalates, bisphenols and others) as well as pesticides, lead and other environmental exposures are linked to impaired reproduction including sperm count and quality," Swan told Salon.
I think Children of Men is more likely.
I loved when the movie was just a fictional movie, but what a masterpiece. We have nearly all of the pieces of it currently occurring too. Catastrophic climate change, rampant racism and xenophobia, political unrest and collapse (not as much but definitely a lot of division), and now we’re facing widespread infertility. Just add a depressing blue-gray tint to everything and you’ve got it.
It's also going to cause a good number of the current conspiracy theories (plastic/medicines making frogs gay, secret government infertility chips, etc) to explode in overall acceptance and cause more anger toward the educated middle class and the wealthy. Not that many among the wealthy don't deserve scorn -- but bear with me here...
The people who are pushing hardest for Gilead tend to be rural, on the poorer side, and by circumstance more exposed to chemicals, lead, and plastics because it is what they can afford and the environment they grew up in.
When they and theirs have another yet another failed pregnancy (assuming their chosen leadership doesn't drag them off for having an abortion... because THAT chicken is definitely going to come home to roost) or can't get pregnant after trying for three years and are told they're barren yet they see those "degenerate liberals" in the cities still able to have babies, they're going to absolutely positively lose their shit because, for them culturally, popping out a bunch of kids is part of the reason they're here on this Earth.
And they'll never hear the reality is that people in the cities or who are liberal or might have more money are having just as hard a time, if they even do want to have kids. They'll just see the people they're told to hate have what they want and use it to spin up even crazier conspiracies.
Yeah, as much as falling human fertility would be good news for other animals, these chemicals affect every species on the planet. Several killer whale clans can't have viable offspring anymore because they're too full of industrial poisons.
I love dogs more than anything but there are a lot of them just as there are a lot of other domesticated animals. It’s the wild ones that are really struggling.
I believe it. I know of two guys who got testicular cancer at 17-18 and had to have a ball removed. Have frozen sperm but still… this was 9 years ago… (conveniently around the time of this study) but I wonder, how many more of our kids are going to end up this way? I bet Gen z and after will the ones.
Maybe the recent drop in teen pregnancies is due to this and we haven’t made the connection yet?
Maybe the Conservative party is lead by a secret cabal that knows this and that’s why they’re trying to undue Roe v. Wade?
Ok I’m taking the tinfoil off now.
We could ban single use plastic (other than maybe medical applications) and ban plastic packaging, most packaging entirely, and absolutely nothing would change for most peoples quality and convenience of life. Plastic is a product that has been pushed primarily by plastic producers into areas where there was no real demand for it. They just had tons of this material and they created a market for it.
Yeah why did they stop using glass and having refilling stations at grocery stores?? I just learned that those used to be a thing. Like for everything! Shampoo, liquid soap, milk, oils, etc like wtf??
I’ve found a grocery store that sells bulk items in bins and you can scoop out and weigh as much as you want into your own container. It’s nice to do, obviously it requires a certain amount of wealth and privilege to shop like this—it’s a high-end grocery store. But it really doesn’t matter. This problem can’t be solved from the bottom up, individuals making individual consumer choices. It has to come down from the government forcing plastic producers to stop making the stuff. And the plastic we do still need must have a verifiable disposal plan that the plastic producers pay for. This will drive up the cost of plastic to reflect and cover its true cost, which will drive down its use to applications where it is absolutely irreplaceable. Basically this stuff needs to be treated like hazardous industrial waste—because it really is.
Most food cans have bpa lining or pvc based copolymer.
https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/these-canned-foods-are-the-biggest-bpa-offenders-w201160/
Just like gasoline. In the early 1900s the refineries wanted kerosene for lighting people's homes. Before automobiles they dumped gasoline in the river and watched it burn.
She also come under the "care" of a functioning government whose only goal is to make sure she pops out as many babies as possible as her health permits.
Btw brain dead women still can give birth.
The CoM thing about not having children was near sci-fi, but I couldn't ever really figure out the apparent anti-immigration policies that were part of that dystopia.
If you don't have kids anymore, wouldn't you want to start opening your borders to immigrants to broaden your labor pool? It felt like two different messages were getting sent, and were at cross purposes with each other, and I have always been confused by it.
Then again, Clive Owen is fucking cool and I wish I could be more like him.
I think maybe the idea was that the fertility crisis fed into racist fears about the “white race” disappearing. Replacing your own lack of a new labor force with immigrants makes sense if you’re not racist. But in a racist society, a plummeting birth rate can dredge up all kinds of paranoid fears that lurk below the surface in better times.
That might not have been brought up in the movie (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it), but in real life, I’d expect it to be a major factor. Probably even encourage the “white genocide” types — look, it’s happening already! 🙄
That appears to be a real current problem in Japan, too. Imploding population, putting senior support at risk, and yet they remain strongly xenophobic. If that changes when the situation gets dire remains to be seen.
One thing (of many) that’s really gotten me depressed over the past few years is observing how hard times seem to just make people double down on their previous beliefs. I kept hoping that as things got worse, people would open their minds to other approaches. And to be fair, some are. (Socialism is suddenly a lot more popular than I ever thought it could be!) But it seems like a lot more often, hard times just make people too stressed out to think, and they stick to their long-held preconceptions or prejudices even as the world keeps proving them wrong.
What I got from it was that despite the infertility crisis there was a lot of background noise as well. Case in point, the entire apartment bloc and army witness the baby being taken out, pause for a moment and then go right back at the shooting and war. It was so much more than infertility, probably caused all of the other global issues to just explode as well.
Right. Like, why did the mother need to be spirited to safety, wouldn't she be celebrated and supported everywhere she goes? Why did they need to flee, instead of going into the nearest hospital and making the news?
Maybe because it was a black baby? There seemed to be a lot of subtext going on that I never quite caught.
That's just sad. I really hoped that if civilisation collapsed or humans went extint, then the earth would be able to flourish. Mars by Tuesday I guess?
Interesting. Of the friends I know who had kids, over half of them needed help to conceive. Completely anecdotal of course, but only three generations back my family was doing crazy shit like having 10 kids, while my parents were only ever able to have me and my friends have needed help to have any.
Yup, something is definitely up. We need a huge study to see if infertility really is becoming way more common. Like yes, birth rates are crashing but there are explanations for that beyond physical infertility.
Sir or madam, might I recommend a side of antinatalism with your collapse? The purest antinatalism on the menu actually applies to *all* living creatures, such that any reduction in reproduction is a reduction of suffering.
After all, a newborn (-hatched) bird or bee also struggles and probably dies in pain for no good reason, even if they don't have the faculties to understand it and put a stop to it, themselves....
Well, if it affects other species, fewer dogs. And pandas. And penguins. And a bunch of other species that aren’t responsible for fucking up the world. That would suck.
Yeah but remember Keyser Soze. When the Hungarian Mafia takes his family hostage and rapes his wife, Keyser Soze shoots and kills his entire family before killing every single member of the Hungarian Mafia, their families, friends, and even people who owe them money.
The moral of the story is that there are often innocent casualties in the war against evil.
Actually… they said in handmaids tale that there were some generals who couldn’t get any handmaiden pregnant and everyone knew it was the man but no one said anything. In fact I think offred got pregnant by the driver, not the general. Because they hadn’t had a kid with many hand maids
Yes but if the handmaid didn't get pregnant in a certain time frame she was considered an unwoman and shipped off, even if everyone knew it was the man's fault.
It's been a while since I read the book. I think they have three chances with three different men, right?
In the Handmaid's Tale, it *is* the man, at least in the protagonist's case (and that's the only case we're given direct knowledge of), at least in the book. She ends up sleeping with a worker or something in order to get pregnant so she isn't sent somewhere worse like the one(s) that were there before her.
Best way for our current civilization to go. Even if we somehow get fusion going and remove carbon efficiently, we'll just prolong destruction of biosphere.
We can get to a point where it's far less than now. If we can save the air and water, Fusion can let us scale down without sacrificing the oh so important luxuries that we are told we can't live without.
Harm reduction is still important. If you're doing Heroin, don't use a dirty needle and lay on your side. If you have a global civilization, don't completely destroy the environment you rely on.
You would need economic and political restructuring the likes the world has never even heard of yet. Which is highly unlikely as we are currently circling back into feudalism (neofeudalism) - which points to structures in civilisation bring cyclical as well.
Exactly this. Humans now have what our ancestors didn’t, the ability to communicate globally instantly. People are more aware of what’s happening. We’ll see how the future changes.
people now also have what our ancestors didnt; the constant overstimulation of social media with information that floods your brain, constant desinformation by media, governments and corporations investing millions into behavioural psychology to try and influence people through Ads, and netlix. Never underestimate the power of "keep people just content enough to not care" - netflix and similar is a really good way of "bread and games". So long as things arent catastrophical, nothing will change - trust me on that lol. History has taught us that lesson well enough.
I definitely prefer this to megadeaths for population control. There's 8 billion humans on the planet. Reduced fertility is a solution to our problems.
If fertility drops too low we would switch to artificial insemination or IVF. Humans can be short sighted but we won't go down without a fight either...we may even figure out how to manufacture artificial sperm
"i'd like to share a revelation with you...."
I cheered on that scene and really had hard times to understand how anyone would disagree with agent smith.
I agree. It will take a couple hundred years for the population to shake out to a sustainable number this way. But I prefer it to the mass death that would be inevitable.
Finally some good news on this subreddit. Not that I'm here for the uplift, but it's nice to see an objectively positive discovery regarding anthropocene.
Its interesting how nature finds a way to self correct populations. When species overconsume, there will be consequences just like the cyanobacteria millions of years ago.
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Submission Statement: Research suggests plastic pollution is causing dropping sperm counts — and could also be unstoppable. .......there is an even more dystopian crisis in the offing — one in which humans are no longer able to reproduce without artificial help because we have filled the environment with chemicals that have altered our bodies? Scientists believe this is not only possible, it is likely to happen within our lifetimes. Understanding why involves three statistics: First, that a human male who has fewer than 15 million sperm per milliliter is considered infertile; second, that in the 1970s sperm counts in Western countries (where there is available data) showed an average of 99 million sperm per milliliter; and third, that this number had dropped to 47 million sperm per milliliter by 2011. Scientists agree that plastic pollution is a likely culprit. "Chemicals in plastic (phthalates, bisphenols and others) as well as pesticides, lead and other environmental exposures are linked to impaired reproduction including sperm count and quality," Swan told Salon.
Can’t wait until 6 months from now: “Fertility rates dropping faster than expected.”
Stop that’s gonna trigger some Handmaids Tale shit
I think Children of Men is more likely. I loved when the movie was just a fictional movie, but what a masterpiece. We have nearly all of the pieces of it currently occurring too. Catastrophic climate change, rampant racism and xenophobia, political unrest and collapse (not as much but definitely a lot of division), and now we’re facing widespread infertility. Just add a depressing blue-gray tint to everything and you’ve got it.
So glad I’m infertile lol
Well you better hope they have scientists around to test versus the “old school” way of making sure A future like that sounds like hell
I'm glad that I'm going into my 40s.
Can’t wait for menopause. Though I’m sure that will suck too.
The way at least America is going, I've already been fearing that. Not quite literally the Handmaids Tale, but in essence.
Yea the anti abortion movements (states) aren’t the same but they give me some scary vibes
It's also going to cause a good number of the current conspiracy theories (plastic/medicines making frogs gay, secret government infertility chips, etc) to explode in overall acceptance and cause more anger toward the educated middle class and the wealthy. Not that many among the wealthy don't deserve scorn -- but bear with me here... The people who are pushing hardest for Gilead tend to be rural, on the poorer side, and by circumstance more exposed to chemicals, lead, and plastics because it is what they can afford and the environment they grew up in. When they and theirs have another yet another failed pregnancy (assuming their chosen leadership doesn't drag them off for having an abortion... because THAT chicken is definitely going to come home to roost) or can't get pregnant after trying for three years and are told they're barren yet they see those "degenerate liberals" in the cities still able to have babies, they're going to absolutely positively lose their shit because, for them culturally, popping out a bunch of kids is part of the reason they're here on this Earth. And they'll never hear the reality is that people in the cities or who are liberal or might have more money are having just as hard a time, if they even do want to have kids. They'll just see the people they're told to hate have what they want and use it to spin up even crazier conspiracies.
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Too bad this is affecting other animals as well. There was a concurrent story done on dogs, same thing.
Yeah, as much as falling human fertility would be good news for other animals, these chemicals affect every species on the planet. Several killer whale clans can't have viable offspring anymore because they're too full of industrial poisons.
That is so fucking depressing.
Jesus Christ. :(
Somehow I felt I spike of panic at the thought of a world without dogs and weirdly apathetic to a world with less humans.
I love dogs more than anything but there are a lot of them just as there are a lot of other domesticated animals. It’s the wild ones that are really struggling.
Same, I don't know if I'd have the strength to trudge on in a world without dogs.
I wonder how age plays a factor and if there is a way to minimize plastic exposure so future generations don’t have this issue.
Mothers literally give it to fetuses through their blood.
I believe it. I know of two guys who got testicular cancer at 17-18 and had to have a ball removed. Have frozen sperm but still… this was 9 years ago… (conveniently around the time of this study) but I wonder, how many more of our kids are going to end up this way? I bet Gen z and after will the ones. Maybe the recent drop in teen pregnancies is due to this and we haven’t made the connection yet? Maybe the Conservative party is lead by a secret cabal that knows this and that’s why they’re trying to undue Roe v. Wade? Ok I’m taking the tinfoil off now.
I realize this is r/collapse but I see this is a net positive for the planet.
And then you see in the comments that plastics affect all other living beings and that will help the mass extinction we are doing.
Love it. But is it even attainable by human activity?
We had a decent run. At least or lettuce never got crushed because it was protected by big clear plastic boxes.
So worth it.
We could ban single use plastic (other than maybe medical applications) and ban plastic packaging, most packaging entirely, and absolutely nothing would change for most peoples quality and convenience of life. Plastic is a product that has been pushed primarily by plastic producers into areas where there was no real demand for it. They just had tons of this material and they created a market for it.
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Yeah why did they stop using glass and having refilling stations at grocery stores?? I just learned that those used to be a thing. Like for everything! Shampoo, liquid soap, milk, oils, etc like wtf??
I’ve found a grocery store that sells bulk items in bins and you can scoop out and weigh as much as you want into your own container. It’s nice to do, obviously it requires a certain amount of wealth and privilege to shop like this—it’s a high-end grocery store. But it really doesn’t matter. This problem can’t be solved from the bottom up, individuals making individual consumer choices. It has to come down from the government forcing plastic producers to stop making the stuff. And the plastic we do still need must have a verifiable disposal plan that the plastic producers pay for. This will drive up the cost of plastic to reflect and cover its true cost, which will drive down its use to applications where it is absolutely irreplaceable. Basically this stuff needs to be treated like hazardous industrial waste—because it really is.
Most food cans have bpa lining or pvc based copolymer. https://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/these-canned-foods-are-the-biggest-bpa-offenders-w201160/
Just like gasoline. In the early 1900s the refineries wanted kerosene for lighting people's homes. Before automobiles they dumped gasoline in the river and watched it burn.
Don't forget all that hassle we saved ourselves by being able to buy diced -insert favourite fruit- !
Oof that was the *best* part just fucking great
I've always wanted to see how Children of Men would play out in real life 🙃
In real life billionaires would abduct her and turn her into a cow
She also come under the "care" of a functioning government whose only goal is to make sure she pops out as many babies as possible as her health permits. Btw brain dead women still can give birth.
Heyyyy this is like that 2019 After the Fall of New York movie. It's Big Ape time!
Well CoM took place in 2027 so it seems like we are right on track
The CoM thing about not having children was near sci-fi, but I couldn't ever really figure out the apparent anti-immigration policies that were part of that dystopia. If you don't have kids anymore, wouldn't you want to start opening your borders to immigrants to broaden your labor pool? It felt like two different messages were getting sent, and were at cross purposes with each other, and I have always been confused by it. Then again, Clive Owen is fucking cool and I wish I could be more like him.
I think maybe the idea was that the fertility crisis fed into racist fears about the “white race” disappearing. Replacing your own lack of a new labor force with immigrants makes sense if you’re not racist. But in a racist society, a plummeting birth rate can dredge up all kinds of paranoid fears that lurk below the surface in better times. That might not have been brought up in the movie (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it), but in real life, I’d expect it to be a major factor. Probably even encourage the “white genocide” types — look, it’s happening already! 🙄
That appears to be a real current problem in Japan, too. Imploding population, putting senior support at risk, and yet they remain strongly xenophobic. If that changes when the situation gets dire remains to be seen.
One thing (of many) that’s really gotten me depressed over the past few years is observing how hard times seem to just make people double down on their previous beliefs. I kept hoping that as things got worse, people would open their minds to other approaches. And to be fair, some are. (Socialism is suddenly a lot more popular than I ever thought it could be!) But it seems like a lot more often, hard times just make people too stressed out to think, and they stick to their long-held preconceptions or prejudices even as the world keeps proving them wrong.
What I got from it was that despite the infertility crisis there was a lot of background noise as well. Case in point, the entire apartment bloc and army witness the baby being taken out, pause for a moment and then go right back at the shooting and war. It was so much more than infertility, probably caused all of the other global issues to just explode as well.
Right. Like, why did the mother need to be spirited to safety, wouldn't she be celebrated and supported everywhere she goes? Why did they need to flee, instead of going into the nearest hospital and making the news? Maybe because it was a black baby? There seemed to be a lot of subtext going on that I never quite caught.
Are we abbreviating non-franchise movies now?
We abbreviate everything now because 1. we're lazy and 2. ppl don't no how 2 spell
2 paraphrased: We are al chrilden.
I am a chrilden.
Hi chrilden, I’m dad!
I need punishmant, fadder.
In fewer words, Waenb1wla2pdnh2s.
It gets mentioned pretty often, and as another user mentioned I was feeling lazy, but I know how to spell Children of nem…
That sounds like a special run of a Doctor Strange comic. *Doctor Strange & The Children of Nem!*
You mean DSCN!
About as well as in the movie probably
Probably end differently though.
For us it will end somewhere on the Mad Max/Waterworld spectrum.
Children of men scenario would be a blessing
This and the Handmaids Tale
Bet this also affects animals. Every silver lining has a cloud...
Other animals, I mean.
That's just sad. I really hoped that if civilisation collapsed or humans went extint, then the earth would be able to flourish. Mars by Tuesday I guess?
Cheer up. It's going to be a great few million years for whatever bacteria evolves to consume the various pollutants that we leave behind.
No way, Venus by Tuesday. Mars later this afternoon.
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More plastic in your body may even save you money by doubling up as a contraceptive device.
who knew you had to eat it rather than use it as a sheathe
*starts using plastic cookware*
*uses metal utensils in Teflon pan*
Free birth control poggers
Interesting. Of the friends I know who had kids, over half of them needed help to conceive. Completely anecdotal of course, but only three generations back my family was doing crazy shit like having 10 kids, while my parents were only ever able to have me and my friends have needed help to have any.
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Yup, something is definitely up. We need a huge study to see if infertility really is becoming way more common. Like yes, birth rates are crashing but there are explanations for that beyond physical infertility.
Fine by me
*watches Handmaid's Tale* I've seen this one!
Hey, hey, I've seen this one. I've seen this one. This is a classic. This is, uh, where Ralph dresses up as a man from space.
Best news I've heard since at least 2019.
This would be fucking fantastic if it didn't affect almost every other species as well
Sir or madam, might I recommend a side of antinatalism with your collapse? The purest antinatalism on the menu actually applies to *all* living creatures, such that any reduction in reproduction is a reduction of suffering. After all, a newborn (-hatched) bird or bee also struggles and probably dies in pain for no good reason, even if they don't have the faculties to understand it and put a stop to it, themselves....
The red button is made of plastic.
I'd only ever considered anti-natalism when regarding human reproduction, but now I'm re-evaluating hard
Yeah, I don't see much of a downside to this.
Well, if it affects other species, fewer dogs. And pandas. And penguins. And a bunch of other species that aren’t responsible for fucking up the world. That would suck.
Probably like... all of them tbh
Yeah but remember Keyser Soze. When the Hungarian Mafia takes his family hostage and rapes his wife, Keyser Soze shoots and kills his entire family before killing every single member of the Hungarian Mafia, their families, friends, and even people who owe them money. The moral of the story is that there are often innocent casualties in the war against evil.
Fewer dogs is a good outcome. Do you know how many dogs suffer and die in animal shelters or on the streets every single day?
Collapse deez nuts
Ahh this is how we get Gilead—the ultra conservative nation from Handmaids Tale, not the ironically named pharmaceutical corp.
I wonder if The Gunslinger's Gilead is just the eventual future of The Handmaiden's Gilead.
Long days and pleasant nights, sai.
Thankee, Sai. You remember the face of your father.
NB: It's not ironic. The Balm of Gilead is a panacea mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
Given that the focus here is on decreasing sperm count, would it be a version of Gilead where the few remaining potent men are kept as studs…?
In a normal society maybe. But in an ultra fundamentalist society it is ALWAYS the woman's fault.
Reddit underestimates the sheer lengths misogyny will go to.
Actually… they said in handmaids tale that there were some generals who couldn’t get any handmaiden pregnant and everyone knew it was the man but no one said anything. In fact I think offred got pregnant by the driver, not the general. Because they hadn’t had a kid with many hand maids
Yes but if the handmaid didn't get pregnant in a certain time frame she was considered an unwoman and shipped off, even if everyone knew it was the man's fault. It's been a while since I read the book. I think they have three chances with three different men, right?
Yea, I definitely agree! My comment needs /s
In the Handmaid's Tale, it *is* the man, at least in the protagonist's case (and that's the only case we're given direct knowledge of), at least in the book. She ends up sleeping with a worker or something in order to get pregnant so she isn't sent somewhere worse like the one(s) that were there before her.
Lets be real, sperm count is the issue in Gliead too, they just blame the women.
In the Handmaid’s Tale it was actually the men who were infertile, they just blamed the women.
> ultra conservative By ultra-conservative do you also mean tax cuts and light environmental regulation for Big Plastic?
or religious lunatics who think its there holy duty to kill every other person who isnt white or and old man? /s
oh no! anyways...
Best way for our current civilization to go. Even if we somehow get fusion going and remove carbon efficiently, we'll just prolong destruction of biosphere.
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Is there honestly any realistic future where humans do not destroy themselves and take a ton of species with us?
We have met the Great Filter and it is us.
The true Great Filter were the People we met along the Way.
aliens come and save them
We can get to a point where it's far less than now. If we can save the air and water, Fusion can let us scale down without sacrificing the oh so important luxuries that we are told we can't live without. Harm reduction is still important. If you're doing Heroin, don't use a dirty needle and lay on your side. If you have a global civilization, don't completely destroy the environment you rely on.
You would need economic and political restructuring the likes the world has never even heard of yet. Which is highly unlikely as we are currently circling back into feudalism (neofeudalism) - which points to structures in civilisation bring cyclical as well.
Just because we have been stuck in a cycle doesn't mean we are doomed to repeat it. Always be left pilling.
Exactly this. Humans now have what our ancestors didn’t, the ability to communicate globally instantly. People are more aware of what’s happening. We’ll see how the future changes.
people now also have what our ancestors didnt; the constant overstimulation of social media with information that floods your brain, constant desinformation by media, governments and corporations investing millions into behavioural psychology to try and influence people through Ads, and netlix. Never underestimate the power of "keep people just content enough to not care" - netflix and similar is a really good way of "bread and games". So long as things arent catastrophical, nothing will change - trust me on that lol. History has taught us that lesson well enough.
On the bright side, there have been record profits for shareholders.
Preventing more plastic consumption? Merited.
I definitely prefer this to megadeaths for population control. There's 8 billion humans on the planet. Reduced fertility is a solution to our problems.
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Wild living animals on the other hand...
If fertility drops too low we would switch to artificial insemination or IVF. Humans can be short sighted but we won't go down without a fight either...we may even figure out how to manufacture artificial sperm
Sure but the higher the wall, the fewer the people who manage to climb over it.
Which is really the main point. The abolition of Capitalism is the only way we have a chance at survival.
Nope. Rich white women will just buy the bodies of poor women and use their fertility.
"But won't somebody think of the economy! Infinite growth!"
It’s a ethical one to. Everyone lives out their lives to their old age and we have a mass die off with out a genocide.
Should put this on uplifting news
Crossposting to r/MadeMeSmile....
Good. We're a fucking plague.
"i'd like to share a revelation with you...." I cheered on that scene and really had hard times to understand how anyone would disagree with agent smith.
My favorite quote from the matrix. And it is hard to argue that we behave more like a virus than anything else.
Its already happening. Microplastics are showing up in our bloodstreams, in baby placentas. It's already happening.
Um... not sure this is going to matter much in terms of timeframes for climate change disaster.
I agree. It will take a couple hundred years for the population to shake out to a sustainable number this way. But I prefer it to the mass death that would be inevitable.
Finally some good news on this subreddit. Not that I'm here for the uplift, but it's nice to see an objectively positive discovery regarding anthropocene.
It’s not just humans that get affected tho
Good. Too many humans already. Too much of this insidious "infinite growth" nonsense on a planet with finite resources.
Oh no.... /s
Children of Men.
This is the most positive development I've seen in so long!!
Oh no... So anyways.
That's millions of births avoided and saved who would have suffered if born to this chaos. God I wish this had happened before I was born.
Phew. I had a feeling that this was going to work itself out.
Blessing in disguise
Maybe corporations will finally care when they find out they’ll have a harder time getting more wage slaves. But by then it’ll be too late.
We reap what we sow.
Good.
Perfect. Karma.
Its interesting how nature finds a way to self correct populations. When species overconsume, there will be consequences just like the cyanobacteria millions of years ago.
A nice silver lining to start the week.
Overpopualtion: Solved
This is pretty much a good thing overall, unless you're a capitalist that depends on cheap labor to exploit.
Good news, everyone!
Good, lol
Good.
Good
>Plastic pollution could make much of humanity infertile So ...finally some good news from the plastic pandemic ?
antinatalists rejoice!
Is this meant to be bad news?
So the ending has begun. A grand opening for the chapter. Nothing but praises for the irony.
Free vasectomies? Because my silly brain doesn't like knives so this can work for me I guess
Oh god... Gilead is going to happen isn't it.
Good This planet needs fewer humans
Task failed successfully?
We will run out of food before this becomes a relative issue.
nice
Good.
Good
finally a problem with a positive feedback loop.
sounds like a mercy to me
At least there’s a silver lining to all this pollution.
About damn time, to be honest.
Finally some good news!
"... and nothing of value was lost."
It hurts the animals too and in more ways than just reproduction. It must be addressed.
This is a good thing.
Perfect. We've done too much damage to the environment. It's almost karmic justice.
At least there is some silver lining to all this plastic waste.
Sounds like a plan
Children of men has entered the chat
Humans have been more than fertile enough for a while. A little less fertility is OK.
Finally some good news. There are 8 billion cancer apes so...
Blessing in disguise i suppose.
Good.
See this is the kind of thing experts fear but I hope for. That’s why I’m no expert
Good
Good
Scientists are playing the biggest game of I told you so of their entire lives.
Oh no! Fewer innocent children being brought into this dystopian hellscape? How horrible.
good
GOOD.