Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts by Shanna H. Swan, Stacey Colino
In the tradition of Silent Spring and The Sixth Extinction , an urgent, “disturbing, empowering, and essential” ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review) 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.
In 2017, author Shanna Swan and her team of researchers completed a major study. They found that over the past four decades, sperm levels among men in Western countries have dropped by more than 50 percent. They came to this conclusion after examining 185 studies involving close to 45,000 healthy men. The result sent shockwaves around the globe-but the story didn’t end there. It turns out our sexual development is changing in broader ways, for both men and women and even other species, and that the modern world is on pace to become an infertile one.
How and why could this happen? What is hijacking our fertility and our health? Count Down unpacks these questions, revealing what Swan and other researchers have learned about how both lifestyle and chemical exposures are affecting our fertility, sexual development-potentially including the increase in gender fluidity-and general health as a species. Engagingly explaining the science and repercussions of these worldwide threats and providing simple and practical guidelines for effectively avoiding chemical goods (from water bottles to shaving cream) both as individuals and societies, Count Down is “staggering in its findings” (Erin Brockovich, The Guardian) and “will serve as an awakening” ( The New York Times Book Review ).
I guess enough time has gone by to know that Swan and Colino’s warning has gone unheeded. Big surprise, since it’s just another in a line of warnings that have been ignored. That this one affects the future of the human race, along with a variety of other species, should lend it weight. That is doesn’t says so much more about the human race than the book does.
The idea that there will be less people seems like a good thing, but the authors see a downside to that as well. But if there’s to be suffering (not enough young to pay for the old,) well, nothing is free.
There’s a lot of information in the book, covering a variety of causes and effects. I’d known about how the chemicals have been affecting other species, especially amphibians, but I think it was good that their plight is also covered. We’re not alone. But given what’s happening, it may be the other species that will find their number dropped by one.
Mount TBR 2024 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. Bone Walker (Anasazi Mysteries #3) by Kathleen O'Neal Gear, W. Michael Gear
2. Holly by Stephen King
3. Inferno (Inferno#1) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
4. Fallout (Lois Lane #1) by Gwenda Bond
5. The Secret People by John Wyndham
6. Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
7. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
8. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
9. Psyche and Eros by Luna McNamara
10. Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts by Shanna H. Swan, Stacey Colino
FEB- Heir, Night, Bride, Down, Women, Hand, Teach, Guest
Count Down by Shanna H. Swan, PhD
