The Guardian is running a story claiming that falling sperm counts due to “everyday chemicals” are creating a fertility crisis that could threaten the survival of the human race.
I hope there is such a crisis. There are too many people on the earth; we are consuming the planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate and polluting it with, among other things, the very “everyday chemicals” being blamed for the crisis.
To survive, we have to get down to the planet’s pre-industrial population level, perhaps 10% of what it is now. And if this fertility crisis were real, it might be just the thing to get us there without a war, a pandemic, or a famine.
I am, however, a bit skeptical. The dynamics of a population are far more affected by the number or fertile females than the number of fertile males, for fairly obvious reasons. Birth rates, particularly in developed countries, are more likely to be affected by economics than biology. Capitalism is probably the least family-friendly economic system ever devised, and wherever it takes root, birth rates plummet.
However, I’m not an expert in any of these areas, but a rank amateur relying solely on my own life experience and my powers of observation.
What do y’all think?