Dear Mr. Stevenson, You are an excellent writer; this is an important article. I am a retired surgical pathologist following the endocrinological literature on hormonal disrupters. The endocrinologists with the most susceptible children - boys - have very unique insight and solutions. I would like to take a contrarian view. Sperm counts are only falling in the West. Add women-education-induced subreplacement R rate in the West - voila, a wonderful subreplacement R rate. Each Westerner (and perhaps Chinese) born adds to global warming to a larger degree than other cultures. . There are unfortunately large portions of the planet where R rates are high. The R rate is an indicator of how close we are to solving the big kahuna - climate change. Have no doubt, potentially irreversible climate change is occurring in the here and now. We need a radical transformation of developed and partially developed economies that drive climate change. Then we need, as a wise (???????) planet to educate women in all parts of the world where they are either denied education or cannot access it. This will lead to a global subreplacement R rate and perhaps save the planet from daily highs of 125 degrees F or hotter. If you think the current migration "crisis" is a crisis, watch the massive equatorial out-migration to the north and the south to escape unliveable daily temperatures. It will lead to the apocalyptic calamities you describe. Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it, lol! Kindly, Peter H. Dohan, MD, Portland ME peterdohan1@gmail.com
Those are some interesting points you raise Peter. There's no doubt the education of women is one of the primary ways to bring down a high birth rate. As you state, the west is confirmation of this. I hope the issues with hormonal disruptors aren't as bad as they appear, though I fear they might be. I'm yet to read the book Countdown, which tackles this issue. Climate change is indeed the biggest crisis we face and I agree that migration owing to rises in temperature will make the current crisis look like small fry in comparison. I'm not sure we're prepared for what's going to happen in the coming decades, unfortunately.
Dear Mr. Stevenson, You are an excellent writer; this is an important article. I am a retired surgical pathologist following the endocrinological literature on hormonal disrupters. The endocrinologists with the most susceptible children - boys - have very unique insight and solutions. I would like to take a contrarian view. Sperm counts are only falling in the West. Add women-education-induced subreplacement R rate in the West - voila, a wonderful subreplacement R rate. Each Westerner (and perhaps Chinese) born adds to global warming to a larger degree than other cultures. . There are unfortunately large portions of the planet where R rates are high. The R rate is an indicator of how close we are to solving the big kahuna - climate change. Have no doubt, potentially irreversible climate change is occurring in the here and now. We need a radical transformation of developed and partially developed economies that drive climate change. Then we need, as a wise (???????) planet to educate women in all parts of the world where they are either denied education or cannot access it. This will lead to a global subreplacement R rate and perhaps save the planet from daily highs of 125 degrees F or hotter. If you think the current migration "crisis" is a crisis, watch the massive equatorial out-migration to the north and the south to escape unliveable daily temperatures. It will lead to the apocalyptic calamities you describe. Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it, lol! Kindly, Peter H. Dohan, MD, Portland ME peterdohan1@gmail.com
Those are some interesting points you raise Peter. There's no doubt the education of women is one of the primary ways to bring down a high birth rate. As you state, the west is confirmation of this. I hope the issues with hormonal disruptors aren't as bad as they appear, though I fear they might be. I'm yet to read the book Countdown, which tackles this issue. Climate change is indeed the biggest crisis we face and I agree that migration owing to rises in temperature will make the current crisis look like small fry in comparison. I'm not sure we're prepared for what's going to happen in the coming decades, unfortunately.