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by Solvency 898 days ago
If this has been happening for decades, why are lifespans still increasing, why are average heights of new generations increasing, etc?

I know PFAS are hormonal disrupters in research but it seems like most people are doing... just fine?
3 comments
mandmandam 898 days ago
> why are lifespans still increasing

We are burning huge amounts of fossil fuels to run the economy. This economic boon leads to longer lifetimes, at a huge but externalized and delayed cost.

> it seems like most people are doing... just fine?

Where do you live?

Outside of affluent areas, I think most people these days would laugh at such an absurd claim. We are not fine, physically or mentally.

Our soil isn't fine. Our air isn't fine. Our water isn't fine - not our wells, our rivers, our lakes, our oceans, or even our icecaps. Our species are being made extinct at 1000x the background rate of extinction. Anyone fine with this is on the ignorant side of blissful.

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Solvency 898 days ago
The age-standardized death rate from cancer has declined by 15% since 1990.

https://ourworldindata.org/cancer

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Solvency 898 days ago
I agree fully with you. And I've read Kiss The Ground. Twice.

But certain biomarkers in average are oddly doing ok. It's weird.

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adamweld 898 days ago
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-per-woman-un?tab...
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chrisamiller 898 days ago
Are you claiming that declining fertility is due to plastic, rather than to increasing wealth, education of women, and access to contraception? If so, then I'm going to have to ask you for a) a source and b) a plausible mechanism.
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zug_zug 898 days ago
It's entirely plausible.

There's very strong evidence that both sperm counts and testosterone levels are going down (wikipedia it) worldwide over the last 60 years.

The mechanism here would be that many plastics are or contain endocrine disruptors. Or just an unknown mechanism (there's just so much about biology we don't know).

I believe there's also evidence that younger generations are having less sex. There's also a claim that people have much less "mature" (i.e. sexually-developed) facial features.

Of course this could all be tested by a proper study.

Now back to your point, your first reaction might be "All my friends aren't having kids because they don't want to, none are trying and can't." But if sex-drive is down across the board that may explain it. America doesn't even self-replace (unless you count new immigrants).

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polski-g 898 days ago
Fertility is collapsing in North Korea and Iran. So no, its not about any of those things.
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SoftTalker 898 days ago
Could be pervasive malnutrition, generally poor-to-nonexistent health care, and generally polluted environment.
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Ryan_IRL 898 days ago
We might be doing fine on average, despite it. Yet, there are seemingly links to autoimmune diseases and cancers, and still more research to do.

So maybe a good % of the population could be doing more fine without the micro plastics?

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