Developing into extinction
Posted May 5th, 2012 at 11:39 AM by Solidaire
During the last century, our technological and scientific progress has been immense. We advanced chemistry and used its breakthroughs in almost every aspect of life. We found ways (pesticides, fertilizers) to improve the agricultural production and feed more people. We created products on a mass scale that improve our daily life, or simply serve our vanity. We introduced medicines widely used that are essential to our survival, like antibiotics, and others, like the contraceptive pill that are crucial to our societies, but didn't care enough for their safe disposal and removal from natural cycles. We even use antibiotics to improve the output of the meat industry.
The problem with all this chemical euphoria is that, aside from the obvious benefits, there are serious side-effects to which we were oblivious up to a certain point, or simply choose to ignore for various reasons.
Aside from the direct and obvious threats that pollution poses to nature and mankind (acute and chronic poisoning, carcinogenesis), there are other, more insidious results. Many of the chemical compounds widely used are hormone mimickers, resembling the chemical structure of our endogenous hormones, mainly the female ones. When those chemicals enter our bodies, they disrupt the hormonal balance of both sexes, and if exposure is extensive, the results are cumulative and often devastating.
There are strong indications that this 'hormonal flood' may be the reason behind the explosion of breast cancer in women, and to a lesser degree, of prostate cancer in men. Both are diseases strongly related to, and affected by, hormones and hormone mimickers.
Breast cancer is increasingly becoming an epidemic in Western countries, with an estimated risk of 1 in 8 women likely to develop the disease at some point in their life. Statistically, each female born in Europe, North America and Australia has a 12% probability of developing breast cancer, with certain risk factors increasing this number.
*An appeal to females reading this: Ladies, please, please do not neglect your mammary examinations. And don't wait 'till after the age of 40. Younger and younger women are affected by the disease.
More and more couples experience fertility problems, and the effect of chemicals on the potency of sperm is suspected as a main reason. A disheartening decrease of birth rates in industrial nations is not only a result of social factors, but may well be a result of inability due to hormone mimickers' pollution. More and more couples have to resort to medical help to be able to bear a child.
Our world is being feminised. Wildlife and humans alike are bombarded with female hormones, endangering not only health, but also the proper function of the male gender, and ultimately, life itself. Some articles:
Feminizing The World
BBC NEWS | Health | Plastic chemicals 'feminise boys'
Welcome to Menoqueen!
New Frontier: Pesticide Pestilence
Feminized male fish abundant in American rivers - Animal News: Animal Planet
Something in the water is feminizing male fish. Are we next? // Current TV
As for the causes and possible solutions, that's a long and perhaps controversial discussion. But I think it needs to be done, and soon. Some thoughts, to initiate discussion:
In poor countries, extensive use of cheap means to development is the only affordable option, and precaution for future risks is just a luxury. It will take a co-ordinated global effort to substitute these methods and the support of richer and more developed countries.
Greed, mainly corporate one, is a very strong force against switching to a more costly, less profitable model of development. A capitalist model constantly requiring more and more growth, regardless of the impact on nature and life, is costing us dearly in human lives and endangering the planet.
Not that other forms of development are innocent of environmental crimes; some of the worse were committed by the 'communist' governments of Soviet Union and China.
The key word is regulation, strict, determined, and if possible applied worldwide, at least on crucial health and environmental issues.
It may be a human characteristic to seek results 'here and now', rush headlong down a path, and leave future implications for others. But we need to reconsider. There can be viable models of development, less impressive and more costly perhaps, but far safer for mankind and our natural world. The way humanity reacted to the ozone depletion ( ) is an indication of what we can achieve if determined. I remain an optimist, that eventually we won't "develop into extinction". I just hope that this model of hurried, inconsiderate development will be terminated, as soon as possible, and the 'chemical storm' we live in dissipates. And, unable to suppress a sense of grief, I do hope that we won't sacrifice any more lives in this kind of frenzied, almost hybristic race.
PS:There is a thriving market of organic products, free of pesticides, fertilisers, hormones, and other chemical residues. Not only food products, but also cosmetics, cleaning products, paints, etc. There are even whole houses constructed and furnished with as less harmful chemical encumbrance as possible. The problem is that all these 'privileges' cost a lot more than normal, and they can't be afforded by the majority. Class distinction applies to health as well. Nothing new there, of course.
The problem with all this chemical euphoria is that, aside from the obvious benefits, there are serious side-effects to which we were oblivious up to a certain point, or simply choose to ignore for various reasons.
Aside from the direct and obvious threats that pollution poses to nature and mankind (acute and chronic poisoning, carcinogenesis), there are other, more insidious results. Many of the chemical compounds widely used are hormone mimickers, resembling the chemical structure of our endogenous hormones, mainly the female ones. When those chemicals enter our bodies, they disrupt the hormonal balance of both sexes, and if exposure is extensive, the results are cumulative and often devastating.
There are strong indications that this 'hormonal flood' may be the reason behind the explosion of breast cancer in women, and to a lesser degree, of prostate cancer in men. Both are diseases strongly related to, and affected by, hormones and hormone mimickers.
Breast cancer is increasingly becoming an epidemic in Western countries, with an estimated risk of 1 in 8 women likely to develop the disease at some point in their life. Statistically, each female born in Europe, North America and Australia has a 12% probability of developing breast cancer, with certain risk factors increasing this number.
*An appeal to females reading this: Ladies, please, please do not neglect your mammary examinations. And don't wait 'till after the age of 40. Younger and younger women are affected by the disease.
More and more couples experience fertility problems, and the effect of chemicals on the potency of sperm is suspected as a main reason. A disheartening decrease of birth rates in industrial nations is not only a result of social factors, but may well be a result of inability due to hormone mimickers' pollution. More and more couples have to resort to medical help to be able to bear a child.
Our world is being feminised. Wildlife and humans alike are bombarded with female hormones, endangering not only health, but also the proper function of the male gender, and ultimately, life itself. Some articles:
Feminizing The World
BBC NEWS | Health | Plastic chemicals 'feminise boys'
Welcome to Menoqueen!
New Frontier: Pesticide Pestilence
Feminized male fish abundant in American rivers - Animal News: Animal Planet
Something in the water is feminizing male fish. Are we next? // Current TV
As for the causes and possible solutions, that's a long and perhaps controversial discussion. But I think it needs to be done, and soon. Some thoughts, to initiate discussion:
In poor countries, extensive use of cheap means to development is the only affordable option, and precaution for future risks is just a luxury. It will take a co-ordinated global effort to substitute these methods and the support of richer and more developed countries.
Greed, mainly corporate one, is a very strong force against switching to a more costly, less profitable model of development. A capitalist model constantly requiring more and more growth, regardless of the impact on nature and life, is costing us dearly in human lives and endangering the planet.
Not that other forms of development are innocent of environmental crimes; some of the worse were committed by the 'communist' governments of Soviet Union and China.
The key word is regulation, strict, determined, and if possible applied worldwide, at least on crucial health and environmental issues.
It may be a human characteristic to seek results 'here and now', rush headlong down a path, and leave future implications for others. But we need to reconsider. There can be viable models of development, less impressive and more costly perhaps, but far safer for mankind and our natural world. The way humanity reacted to the ozone depletion ( ) is an indication of what we can achieve if determined. I remain an optimist, that eventually we won't "develop into extinction". I just hope that this model of hurried, inconsiderate development will be terminated, as soon as possible, and the 'chemical storm' we live in dissipates. And, unable to suppress a sense of grief, I do hope that we won't sacrifice any more lives in this kind of frenzied, almost hybristic race.
Montreal_ProtocolPS:There is a thriving market of organic products, free of pesticides, fertilisers, hormones, and other chemical residues. Not only food products, but also cosmetics, cleaning products, paints, etc. There are even whole houses constructed and furnished with as less harmful chemical encumbrance as possible. The problem is that all these 'privileges' cost a lot more than normal, and they can't be afforded by the majority. Class distinction applies to health as well. Nothing new there, of course.
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