Temperature is a well-known factor in reproduction. Heat stress can cause a surprisingly sudden drop in fertility. New research shows that it can even occur with relatively mild temperature increases. With global human male fertility in a dramatic nosedive, that’s not great news.
Research by an international group has shown that even the fertility of tough things like flies can be severely affected. Add to this rising global temperatures, and joining the dots is pretty easy.
Temperatures and extinction
Temperature is a common delineator in animal, bird, insect, flora, and marine habitats. So it’s not really too surprising that it can also directly affect fertility. What’s surprising is that the loss of fertility in these tests caused extinction in flies that could survive the heat. The males simply couldn’t reproduce.
Abnormal heat is also a possible high risk. Cumulative damage to fertility may be caused by successive heat waves.
Given that many mass extinctions have been predicated by high temperature environments, it looks like heat is a major threat to many species. The mysteries of die-offs of successful species throughout Earth’s history may be easily explained through loss of fertility based on pretty wild temperature fluctuations.
Human fertility vs facts? What a mismatch.
There’s a lot going on in human fertility right now, and not much of it is encouraging. Male fertility in particular is a real problem. Private sperm banks, a “sperm drought”, and stagnant birth rates are some of the standout issues. A toxic environment, rising temperatures, and chemical wastelands aren’t exactly safe for baby. A black market in sperm isn’t hard to visualise, with all the likely problems for couples trying to have kids.
This badly mismanaged world could turn lethal easily enough simply through fertility problems. Overpopulation has long been a curse. Now, it’s also a potential extinction catalyst in an increasingly dangerous, different, world.
Global heating has been caused by meeting the demands of chronic overpopulation. That heat is now turning itself up on human survival, and there’s no easy fix.
Ironically, if appropriately, infertility might be a blessing in a brutal disguise in one way. Would lower populations have a better chance of survival, reduce atmospheric heating and toxic emissions, and therefore be more fertile?
Who knows? It seems obvious, but how do you quantify a sustainable global human population? How do you manage it? When do you start? The big issue here is time, and it’s running out fast enough. 2045 is the cutoff point for male fertility hitting rock bottom, a theoretical zero, according to fertility experts.
Let’s hope people don’t make the same mistake as with the climate change farcical “debates”. If humanity hadn’t spinelessly wasted 30 years on pandering to selfish, ignorant, private wealth interests, things might be very different now. Those delays have directly created a clearly visible fertility disaster in progress.
The choice is now survival or extinction. The margins for error are disappearing.
