News
Harriet Brewis
Mar 26, 2021
AFP via Getty Images
Greta Thunberg is serious about climate change but she has yet again shown that she has a killer sense of humour.
The teenage environmental activist, who describes herself in her bio as “seriously annoying”, has responded to reports that human pensises could be shrinking because of rising rates of pollution.
Sharing a headline to a Sky News story about the warnings, Greta, 18, wrote on Twitter: “See you all at the next climate strike,” followed by a smiley face.
Her tweet, posted on Thursday evening, garnered more than 240,000 likes in less than 13 hours, as fans hailed her for being the “best sniper on the net”.
The link between genital issues and pollution was drawn by environmental scientists Dr Shanna Swan in her new book Countdown.
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Her studies, which focus on the challenges facing human reproduction, conclude that humanity is facing an "existential crisis" in fertility rates as a result of phthalates – a chemical used when manufacturing plastics.
She discovered that male (human) babies who had been exposed to the phthalates in the womb had a shorter anogenital distance, which correlates with penile volume.
The chemical is used industrially for making plastics more flexible, but Dr Swan warns that the chemical is being widely transmitted into toys and foods.
Phathalates mimic the hormone oestrogen and so disrupt the natural production of hormones in the human body. Researchers have linked this to interference in sexual development and behaviours.
Reducing the use of this polluting chemical is necessary to protect the future of the human race, Dr Swan argues in the book.
She believes that rapidly decreasing fertility rates – measured in a series of studies – means that most men will be unable to produce viable sperm by 2045.
So, who will be joining Greta at the next climate strikes?
More: Technology can reverse climate change. It’s time to embrace it
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