Southern Bookman

Declining sperm counts a threat to human survival, scientist warns

More threats to the human race: declining sperm counts and a weakening gulf stream.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof last Sunday sounded the alarm about epidemiologist Shanna H. Swan's findings that human sperm is disappearing.

That's just part of reproductive system disruptions caused by chemicals found in common household products and other environmental factors, Swan says.

Swan, a professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, "warns that the impending fertility crisis poses a global threat comparable to that of the climate crisis," the Guardian said in an article Friday.

In a new book Swan co-authored, "Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race," she says “The current state of reproductive affairs can’t continue much longer without threatening human survival.”

Swan in a 2017 report released her disturbing findings that sperm counts in western countries had fallen by 59 percent between 1973 and 2011.

By 2045, the median sperm count could reach zero, she said in media reports, not elaborating how that could happen unless some males have a negative sperm count.

The plunging sperm count is just one reason for declining fertility rates.

Economic difficulties, changing gender roles and fears about the planet's future are also causing women to have fewer children.

If the reproductive apocalypse is not enough to worry about, the Atlantic Ocean's circulation system that underlies the gulf stream is at its weakest in a millennium, according to media reports.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation system moderates temperatures. The system's collapse because of warming ocean temperatures could exacerbate climate change's extreme weather and the flooding of coastal cities, according to media reports.

From moments of human intimacy to oceanic systems, the world's intricately connected. One part depends upon the other. The carbon-based economy threatens patterns of life that developed over millennia.

 

 

General Motors goes electric as GameStop Soars: A wild week for U.S. economy

Gamestop me if you've heard this one.

GM's going electric.

As a merry band of guerrilla stock traders besieged the hedge-fund short sellers, GM gave the astounding news that it will quit selling gasoline-and diesel-powered cars by 2035.

Damn, that'll probably be too late for me. But GM vows to sell 30 electric-powered cars, 40 percent of its product line, by 2025. My next car could be an battery-powered Sting Ray. 

Does anyone but me remember the old Lil Abner song, "What's Good for General Motors Is Good for the USA?"

The company, blasted by the Japanese and European car invasion years ago, doesn't have that kind of power anymore. But thanks to a bailout from the Obama administration - led by then Vice President Joe Biden - the automaker has battled back.

GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra, the architect of the company's electric future, said, “General Motors is joining governments and companies around the globe working to establish a safer, greener and better world. We encourage others to follow suit and make a significant impact on our industry and on the economy as a whole.”

The GM move might come too late to make a significant difference in reversing climate change. But it offers hope for future generations.

Soccer moms driving those big, fuel-thirsty Suburban SUVs spew a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere. The next generation of moms will drive electric SUVs, if GM fulfills its vision.

The GM bombshell raised the intensity of a volatile week for the American economy.

Just as old-time movie theaters appeared headed for history's teeming dump, those outlaw traders who boosted GameStop drove up megaplex company AMC's stock as well. The hedge fund sharks were crying crocodile tears, as the excellent Matt Taibbi reported in an extensive Substack post.

The GameStop frenzy led to a trading site called Robinhood halting trading of the company. Wasn't Robinhood the name of the Internet startup on HBO's show "Silicon Valley?" The week's frenzy resembled an episode of the show.

As Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out, Robinhood's action went against the eponymous Sherwood Forest outlaw's ethos to steal from the rich and give to the poor.

When the odious GOP Sen. Ted Cruz agreed with her, AOC rejected his support, accusing him of seeking to have her murdered by encouraging the Capitol rioters. 

The soaring stock prices of GameStock and AMC supported companies that flourished in the heyday of suburban shopping malls, now seen as dinosaurs. It's curious that the young traders would prop up those companies rather than some futuristic startup. And the GM news sounds a toll for the internal-combustible engine economy, which fueled - ha, ha - those malls.

General Motors is developing the new Ultium battery, which will make electric cars more affordable. The carmaker also is developing hydrogen technology, and plans to make all of its factories carbon-neutral by 2040.

Artificial intelligence, anyone? Well, robots won't unionize, at least for now.

Following Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal's editorial page skepticism about climate change, the WSJ played the GM story on its business front page, not on the newspaper's front page. It also dashed cold water by calling the GM plan "aspirational." In contrast, The New York Times made the announcement its lead front page story.

While the wild stock market wildfire is likely to burn out soon, the GM move from the internal combustion engine could bring major economic changes.

The move endangers Exxon and other big oil companies. In place of service stations, electric charging stations will be needed, but how will those be profitable?

Homes likely will be equipped with charging stations, which will generate excess electricity, drawing the ire of utilities like Georgia Power. And fossil fuels still will be needed to manufacture batteries, and keep those media streaming services going.

While Elon Musk's Tesla has pioneered the electric vehicles, GM's move looks like the proverbial game-changer for the economy. European automakers are also developing electric vehicles.

Illustrating the shift in corporate thinking, Ford executive Bill Ford signed a recent ad in The New York Times calling for the Biden administration to take action against climate change, along with Hollywood stars and environmental activists. The Ford company is also on the path to selling nothing but electric vehicles.

If the Sting Ray doesn't work out, an electric Mustang would be fine.

 

 

Louise Erdrich speaks for entire Mississippi River community in opposing oil sands pipeline

Writer Louise Erdrich in a New York Times article this week spoke about "the young Mississippi River."

She talked of visiting the sacred place where the river begins "in a stream of pure darkness" two hours north of Minneapolis, where indigenous people are protesting the imminent expansion of the Enbridge Line 3 oil sands pipeline.

Having grown up mesmerized by the "old Mississippi," near the river's end, I felt a kinship with Erdich's report.

By the time the river flows through my hometown of Baton Rouge and New Orleans headed to the Gulf of Mexico, it carries the nation's pollutants. A pipeline accident far upriver in Minnesota would also devastate communities downstream.

The Canadian energy company Enbridge's plan to expand the pipeline through Minnesota will pump oil sands and other forms of crude oil from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior, Wisc., crossing indigenous treaty lands, Erdrich said.

Distressingly, Tim Walz, the liberal Democratic governor of Minnesota, has approved final water permits for the expansion. Erdrich calls this a betrayal after indigenous tribes supported Joe Biden's election. The native people have also suffered disproportionately from Covid.

Although lawsuits have been filed by the White Earth, Red Lake and Mille Lacs nations and several environmental organizations, construction has begun. The indigenous tribes are mobilizing protests, chaining themselves to equipment and undergoing arrests.

The Canadian tar sands "are among the most carbon-intensive fuels on the planet," Erdrich said. The pipeline's carbon output could reach 193 million tons a year, she reports, citing Jim Doyle, a physicist at Macalester College who analyzed the pipleline's impact.

That much carbon would eventually be released into the atmosphere, exacerbating climate change, already bringing suffering to "the land of 10,000 lakes," she says.

Pure at its origins, the Mississippi is sadly ravaged by the time it reaches Louisiana. Agricultural chcmical runoff and industrial pollution lead to oxygen deterioration in the gulf, and loss of sealife. The pipeline's oil sands threaten the entire river. 

 

Thomas Friedman wants Kamala Harris to boost rural America

What's the future of rural America?

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman Wednesday called for Vice President Kamala Harris to make her top priority redeveloping rural America, which lags behind in education, health care, jobs and Internet bandwidth.

Rural Americans' support for Donald Trump and the GOP reflect their anger and despair, Friedman said.

The Democratic Party in catering to better educated urban and suburban voters have lost rural areas, according to Friedman. In concentrating on those needs, Harris can reclaim rural America for the Democratic Party, he says.

I don't fully agree with Friedman; Harris with her talent and experience should be given wider responsibilities. But the country should determine what can be done to improve rural America.

Those communities' failings have been a longtime problem, especially in the South. But as suburban areas spread after World War II and economic benefits broadened, rural America progressed.

Over the last 20 years, however, smaller communities have withered. Globalization, the centralization of agriculture, income disparities, chain retail and opioid addiction have devastated small communities outside of urban areas.

A possible future for rural America was revealed in a Times article Wednesday about Princeton University's major new study about how the United States can transition to a carbon-free economy by 2050 and alleviate climate change.

One of the five "pathways" suggested by Princeton's research, funded by British Petroleum and Exxon Mobil, is a widespread extension of wind and solar power.

With clean energy growing less expensive, the country can make the shift without exorbitant expenditures, the study found.

But a significant expansion of wind and solar power, as well as a major retooling of the electrical power grid, will require major acquisition of land for wind and solar farms, the study found.

Small communities appear a prime source for such sites, which would boost rural economies. But farmers and landowners often object to wind and solar projects, according to the Times article.

A similar major study should be carried out to determine what is meant by rural America.

Smaller communities have lost manufacturing plants to countries like China, Mexico and Vietnam, and won't recover, as  economists who supported globalization like The Times' Paul Krugman now admit.

Thanks But smaller cities like Greenville, S.C., have flourished by attracting international companies such as BMW.

Along with rural areas, major cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and New Orleans have declined economically, while cities like Nashville, Austin, Columbus and Atlanta have boomed.

Rural areas in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and other states have never overcome their historical backwardness. But other once rural parts of the South have made economic and social gains. For example, North Georgia above Atlanta has been an economic hotspot as areas below the "gnat line" have deteriorated.

The United States definitely needs a reckoning with rural America, however that's defined.

 

Jupiter and Saturn taking Christmas star turn

Jupiter and Saturn are coming together to make a Christmas star.

On Dec. 21, the winter's solstice, Jupiter and Saturn will align to their closest appearance in the night sky since 1226, according to an article by Daniella Medina in the Nashville Tennessean.

The planets' yuletide fusion will emit a brilliant beam of light resembling the star that led the Wise Men to Bethlehem.

Known as "the great conjunction," the event occurs every 20 years. But this year, Jupiter and Saturn will appear just 0.1 of a degree apart. The planets also drew that near to each other in 1623, but sunset likely blocked their visibility, the report said.

Youngsters who miss the planets' near embrace this year will have another chance in 2080.

Like shy lovers, the big, slow-moving gas planets are already coming together in the southwestern sky just after sunset. Last night, I walked outside to see them peeking through a tree's branches.

A telescope might reveal Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons, but binoculars are fine, University of Texas astronomer Stephen Hummel told the Texas Monthly.The conjunction is visible for about 45 minutes after sunset.

The planets' alignment through the years has been considered an omen of momentous events. We have many to choose from: a new presidency, the pandemic vaccine, the Super Bowl.

In 1226, the world was a lot quieter than now. But the two planets' celestial show still brings wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Remembering John Lennon, 40 years after his death

On the 40th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, the world hurtles further away from his message of peace and love.

In the years since Lennon was fatally shot outside of his home in New York City, humanity has failed to control carbon emissions and head off climate change.

Storms, fires and drought have worsened. Littered with plastic, the oceans turn acidic and sea levels rise as global ice melts. More and more species head toward extinction, and massive migrations proliferate as people flee deteriorating habitats.

Wars have multiplied, killing millions. The Cold War ended, but China and Russia turned from cooperative to threatening. North Korea, Iran, India and Pakistan bring nuclear holocaust closer. Racism, religious intolerance and political conflict explode.

Lennon's shocking death marked the end of youth for many in my generation. We were entering our 30s, launching families and careers.

But as we joined the "silent majority," we still kept Lennon's vision alive, even as the election of Ronald Reagan launched an era of bitter partisan politics, and the abandonment of bold progressive programs like those enacted during the Johnson and Nixon administrations. 

A new generation of young people gives the world what might be its last hope to survive climate change and nuclear war. They probably don't know much about Lennon, but they still sing his songs.

 

Wildfires sending smoke deep into space, WSJ science writer reports

A traveler through space can tell the earth is burning.

Super thunderstorms caused by massive wildfires send smoke clouds miles into the stratosphere, Wall Street Journal science writer Robert Lee Hotz reports in  his Science Journal column Tuesday.

While the long-term effects have not been determined, the smoke blocks sunlight on a planetary scale. The effect is similar to that of a volcano's erupting. Recent massive wildfires, of longer duration and intensity than in the past, are believed caused by climate change.

The Australian wildfires last January sent smoke 21 miles above the earth, Hotz reports. The smoke circled the globe twice before dissipating last April.

Despite such stories by the WSJ's reporters, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper denies the reality of climate change on its editorial pages.

While not as long-lasting as carbon emissions into the atmosphere, wildifire smoke spewing into the stratosphere is an ominous sign of climate change.

As another hurricane stirs in the Gulf of Mexico, the Trump administration announced another final act of desecration, opening oil leasing in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge. The oil companies can stake their claims to the pristine wilderness beginning Jan. 17, three days before the inauguration of Joe Biden. The Biden administration will have a difficult time reversing the action by the climate-denying, fossil fuel-supporting Trump administration.

Trump's plundering last days highlight the importance of the Senate runoff elections in Georgia. Victories by Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff will allow Biden to carry out his program to shift from a fossil fuel economy and eliminate carbon emissions. Republican control of the Senate will allow fossil fuel companies to continue ravaging the planet.

 

An ominious turn: United States officially abandons climate change treaty

Overlooked in the chaotic battle for the White House, the United States on the day after the presidential election officially left the Paris climate change agreement.

With millions voting for climate-change denier Donald Trump, the United States abandoned the global commitment to reduce carbon emissions.

Trump announced in July 2017 that the United States would leave the 2015 pact that seeks to limit global temperatures. But the treaty required a three-year waiting period for a country to withdraw.

If Trump takes back the White House, the United States, with 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions, will commit itself further to promoting fossil fuels.

Trump has relentlessly reversed President Obama's climate change efforts, from weakening auto-emissions regulations to promoting the coal and petroleum industries.

He has also begun steps to open petroleum drilling in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge and other long protected wilderness areas.

Democratic candidate Joe Biden, near a presidential victory, promises to return to the Paris agreement. If Biden is elected, the country would have a month to rejoin the treaty.

Biden calls for a massive effort to make buildings more energy efficient and developing wind and solar power to shift from a carbon-based economy.

The treaty seeks to keep global temperature increases this century to under 2 degrees celsius above pre-industrial averages. It calls for additional efforts to reach a 1.5c threshold.

Climate change has already advanced further than earlier projections, with soaring temperatures, drought, melting arctic ice, fires and hurricanes. Rising ocean levels will threaten coastal nations and cities.

The United States must rejoin the effort to reduce emissions if the world is to have any chance to limit climate change's devastation.

 

 

 

 

 

Massive bird deaths sound alarm about disappearing plant, animal species

Birds dying by the thousands in the American Southwest give tragic confirmation to the latest UN alarm that biodiversity is collapsing.

For centuries, birds have migrated from Alaska and Canada to Central and South America at the end of summer in the northern hemisphere. Now, large numbers of flycatchers, swallows and warblers are falling out of the sky in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and Nebraska, dying far short of their destinations, according to the Guardian.

That distressing news follows a United Nations report warning that the world is failing to halt the extinction of plant and animal species. Out of 20 goals set in 2010 to reverse humans' destruction of wildlife by 2020, only six have been met, and those partially, according to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The new findings follow an earlier UN report that 1 million plant and animal species are in danger of extinction.

The rapid decline in species since 1970 threaten  human existence, the UN says. Urbanization, the growth of agriculture, the loss of forests, plastic pollution, carbon emissions, climate change and invasive alien species have disrupted natural habitats. Overfishing and industrial wastes spewing into waterways have distressed the earth's oceans.

Climate change, and the wildfires in the Western United States, appear the main cause of the birds' deaths. The fires forced the birds away from pathways where food is plentiful, leaving them too undernourished to complete their journey.

Bird species are also threatened by climate change in Canada and the loss of their South American habitats to deforestation. A similar process is reducing the number of monarch butterflies.

New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert's Pulitzer Prize winning "The Sixth Extinction" warned in 2015 about the threat to humanity from the loss of plants and animals. But even as awareness of climate change grows, the loss of diversity receives little attention.

The UN report contained some good news: deforestation has lessened, more ocean and natural areas have received protection, and progress was made to halt invasive species. But lately, fires have spread across Brazil's Amazon jungle and Pantanal wetlands, as the western United States burns.

As with the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions, the world is running out of time to protect species that share the earth with us.

 

 

Temperatures quickly approaching threshold set by climate change treaty

As wildfires rage across the globe and heat records tumble, high temperatures are soaring rapidly toward the apocalyptic zone.

The world is pushing toward a 1.5-degree Celsius increase in temperatures over pre-industrial averages, the strictest limit set for this century by the Paris climate change agreement in 2015, according to a new report issued by the United Nations World Meterological Organization and other groups.

There's a 25 percent chance that the world will exceed the limit of 2.7 degrees Farenheit in the next four years, the Associated Press reported in an article published on the Huffington Post news site. The Paris treaty also set an upper goal of 2 degrees Celsius for the world to avoid climate change's worst effects.

Temperatures this summer reached 130 degrees in Death Valley, Calif., and 100 degrees in Siberia. As another heat wave pushes temperatures higher, wildfires continue in California, Washington and Oregon.

In Brazil, not only is the Amazon burning with worst fires than last year. Wildfires are also devastating Brazil's Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands, the New York Times reported.

Rising temperatures also bring worst hurricanes. Most of Lake Charles, La., remains without power after Hurricane Laura struck Aug. 27. The hurricane was the most powerful to ever strike the state, frequently ravaged by hurricanes.

Without major emissions reductions, temperatures could blaze far above the 1.5 Celsius threshold, making much of the world unlivable.