Re: Kyoto, Driving our car

Geoff Smith (geoffs@unixg.ubc.ca)
Tue, 9 Dec 1997 12:19:30 -0800 (PST)


On Mon, 8 Dec 1997, Max More wrote:

> At 09:09 PM 12/8/97 -0800, you wrote:
> >
> >A second qualification is that we don't really know the cause OR
> >SIGNIFICANCE of the sperm count depletion.
>
> What is the evidence that this is really happening? The only evidence I've
> heard cited was from a French physician who, it turned out, did not have a
> statistically valid sample. I presume there must be better evidence than
> this, but I have never heard it.

I seem to remember a Scottish study (sorry, no references ;( ) that found
a steady decline in sperm count for Scottish men in the last couple
decades. The suggestion was that this phenomenon was caused by
environmental estrogens. Estrogen analogues can be found in everything
from common shampoo to pesticides, and it is interesting to note that
sperm counts are lower in rural agricultural areas, which *may* be the
result of estrogen analogues in pesticides.

> I would have thought many eco-people would be *happy* about anything that
> reduced population growth...

True, this is an apparent contradiction, and it reminds me of something I
was reading recently. I was reading about some environmentalist movement
that had its roots in Germany. They underlying doctrine of this group
was: if we kill ourselves, we'll be helping the environment. Apparently,
some techno song supporting this meme (and created by a member) is on the
top 20 list in Germany. Can someone verify this? (especially those in
Germany) It seems to me if these people exist, they pose the greatest
threat to human beings imaginable. It seems only logical that the next
step in their logic would be "why don't we kill everyone else." The
danger would be that these characters would take Kamakazi(excuse my
spelling) to a whole new level-- their objective would be to kill as many
people as possible including themselves. I hope I don't sound
too paranoid, but if this group exists, they sound very dangerous.

Geoff.