Countdown: Amy Cornwall Is Patterson's Greatest Character Since Lindsay Boxer

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Given that the findings pertain primarily to Western countries, this may sound like a first-world problem, but it’s not. Rather, I suspect that societies in which people are likely to begin having children at a younger age are less likely to be affected by the fertility-damaging effects of environmental chemicals and life stressors. In our meta-analysis, there were much less data on sperm counts from men from South America, Asia, and Africa; however, more recent research reports declines in those regions as well. An urgent examination of a global problem that requires vastly more attention than it currently receives.

In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction, an urgent, meticulously researched, and groundbreaking book about the ways in which chemicals in the modern environment are changing—and endangering—human sexuality and fertility on the grandest scale, from renowned epidemiologist Shanna Swan. Another, no less important or complicated, question, is, What do these reproductive changes mean for the fate of the human race and the future of the planet? It’s not just a matter of survival—whether humans will continue to be able to reproduce or whether the human race will die out in a Children of Men–type scenario. These issues have subtler, more personal consequences as well. Take declining sperm counts: statistically, this phenomenon goes hand in hand with many other problems for males, including an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and premature mortality (you’ll learn more about these downstream health hazards in chapter 8).The Sea. The Philippines. A strongly Catholic country which nevertheless is attempting to defy the Church and implement family planning.

Finally an eye-opening (to me) section on Mumbai: the 27-story, 400,000 square foot home of the city’s richest man (600 employees needed to keep it running); 100% employment because of massive, never ending construction; perhaps five slums of a million or more inhabitants, one of them Dharavi, lying right next to the city’s financial district and slated for demolition and then redevelopment; the city heading fast towards the title of world’s largest city. Knowing that her leadership is corrupt to the core, intelligence officer Amy Cornwall is forced to give up her identity and work from the shadows. But it's not easy staying hidden when your enemies are elite intelligence operatives. I enjoyed the tips, but ultimately, haven't we all heard that you shouldn't microwave plastic? The tips were not very useful for me...maybe other people could use the advice though. In the next 50 years we will need to produce as much food as has been consumed in our entire human history. Today geneticists, biochemists, crop breeders and plant physiologists are racing to improve wheat yields faster than expanding populations can eat them. Again, pretty much everything I wrote above I previously read in much more cogently argued articles that are widely available. What was not covered in those articles was the question of whether or not the sudden rise in the number of gender dysphoria cases might be caused by greater exposure to anti-androgenic chemicals or endocrine disrupters (either in utero or prior to puberty). I previously assumed this phenomenon was largely (or even exclusively) the result of social contagion (i.e. teens and young adults pushing boundaries and trying to be popular or relevant). So in all honesty this question was rather intriguing and I was curious to see what the data showed. Sadly, the author spent roughly an eighth of the book speculating without any evidence one way or the other. But rest assured, she made sure to state multiple times that even if toxic chemicals are responsible for gender dysphoria, the rise of gender fluidity is something to be celebrated and embraced. OK. Thanks for that scientific analysis Doc.Trash all cleaning products that say "toxic", "hazardous", "danger", or "warning". You do not need deleterious chemicals to clean your floor.

The author discusses the situation with a Japanese economist, Akihiko Matsutani. Matsutani has been considering the issue for many years, and believes that it is something that Japan can work through as the bulge of old people from immediately after the second world war dies off in the nest couple decades. Japan, he thinks, will reach a significantly lower population than is has now (128 million) once this occurs, a population that will be more sustainable.

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This is especially worrisome because the sperm-count decline that’s occurring in Western countries is unabating; it’s steep, significant, and continuing, with no signs of tapering off. As Danish researcher and clinician Niels Skakkebaek, MD, who was the first person to alert the scientific community to the role of environmental factors in sperm decline, said, “It’s an inconvenient message, but the species is under threat, and that should be a wake-up call to all of us. If this doesn’t change in a generation, it is going to be an enormously different society for our grandchildren and their children.” Indeed, if the decline continues at the same rate, by 2050 many couples will need to turn to technology—such as assisted reproduction, frozen embryos, even eggs and sperm that are created from other cells in the laboratory (yes, this is actually being done)—to reproduce.