41 ms·

This is also called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (1991) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve#Environmental_Kuznets_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

This is also called the Environmental Kuznets Curve (1991) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve#Environmental_Kuznets_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuznets_curve#Environmental_Ku... . There's a lot of criticism in the literature. The statistics rarely live up to the theory at face value. (https://steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/Stern_KuznetsCurve.pdf https://steadystate.org/wp-content/uploads/Stern_KuznetsCurv...). And often, new pollutants emerge in rich countries as others decline. For example, in the USA, water pollutants targeted by the Clean Water Act (1972) have declined, but new pollutants have emerged which aren't measured or managed by the policy. Recent years have seen an explosion in estrogen hormones that turn male fish to hermaphrodites that lay eggs, coming from unchecked fertilizer runoff and birth control sewage. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/02/160203-feminized-fish-endocrine-disruption-hormones-wildlife-refuges/ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/02/160203-femin...

dmix 7y ago
> The researchers found intersex smallmouth bass everywhere they looked. About 85 percent of the males collected in the refuges were intersex. At least some males at every site had female egg cells. It was less prevalent in largemouth bass—about 27 percent. Wow that's the vast majority, sounds like it could be a serious issue. What's interesting is how it's been found near cities and Agriculture but also in remote areas. I'm curious how much of a role the waste treatment centers have played which was noted as a potential source. Since water can travel long distances via rivers and rain its going to be hard to pinpoint who or what is to blame. Hopefully they keep digging into that question. I also now understand what Alex Jones meant by "gay fish" in one of his popular rants he was mocked for.
- mushufasa 7y ago
  > What's interesting is how it's been found near cities and Agriculture but also in remote areas. I'm curious how much of a role the waste treatment centers have played which was noted as a potential source. There are generally two main sources. 1. agricultural runoff related to fertilizers. 2. Urban sewage, because birth control products get flushed down toilets and the wastewater treatment plants don't even try to filter for hormones (it's not part of the Clean Water Act). And even if they tried, the methods to do so are nascent (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/19/415336306/hunting-ways-to-keep-synthetic-estrogens-out-of-rivers-and-seas https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/19/4153363...). > I also now understand what Alex Jones meant by "gay fish" in one of his popular rants he was mocked for. Yes, he got unfair criticism for calling attention to this -- it is actually a huge environmental problem that needs more public awareness. The ecological impacts are huge, and yes because the water treatment plants don't filter, you might be drinking similar concentrations through tap water. (edit: to be clear, the concentrations that harm fish are nowhere near enough to cause the same level of harm in humans, so no you will not turn gay from drinking tap water) He's still a nutcase con man though, IMO. Mixing in a few grains of truth makes the poisonous ideas go down smoother.
  - dmix 7y ago
    All charlatans mix truth with falsehoods. Alex Jones knows exactly what he's doing with his character. Anyway yeah the lack of treatment options sounds like a big roadblock. It seems people can find any fertilizer that doesn't harm the environment somehow either, whatever is being used has already had to jump through a hundred hoops first :/
- lordgrenville 7y ago
  Scott Alexander wrote a post [1] about how this was a serious ecological concern, but because Alex Jones picked it up (and augmented it with some wacky government-conspiracy stuff) it became impossible to raise awareness for it without sounding like a nut. [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/04/respectability-cascades/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/04/respectability-cascade...
  - dmix 7y ago
    Love Star codex. It's the best science/rationality blog! Never read a bad article on it.

dmix 7y ago

> The researchers found intersex smallmouth bass everywhere they looked. About 85 percent of the males collected in the refuges were intersex. At least some males at every site had female egg cells. It was less prevalent in largemouth bass—about 27 percent. Wow that's the vast majority, sounds like it could be a serious issue. What's interesting is how it's been found near cities and Agriculture but also in remote areas. I'm curious how much of a role the waste treatment centers have played which was noted as a potential source. Since water can travel long distances via rivers and rain its going to be hard to pinpoint who or what is to blame. Hopefully they keep digging into that question. I also now understand what Alex Jones meant by "gay fish" in one of his popular rants he was mocked for.

mushufasa 7y ago
> What's interesting is how it's been found near cities and Agriculture but also in remote areas. I'm curious how much of a role the waste treatment centers have played which was noted as a potential source. There are generally two main sources. 1. agricultural runoff related to fertilizers. 2. Urban sewage, because birth control products get flushed down toilets and the wastewater treatment plants don't even try to filter for hormones (it's not part of the Clean Water Act). And even if they tried, the methods to do so are nascent (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/19/415336306/hunting-ways-to-keep-synthetic-estrogens-out-of-rivers-and-seas https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/06/19/4153363...). > I also now understand what Alex Jones meant by "gay fish" in one of his popular rants he was mocked for. Yes, he got unfair criticism for calling attention to this -- it is actually a huge environmental problem that needs more public awareness. The ecological impacts are huge, and yes because the water treatment plants don't filter, you might be drinking similar concentrations through tap water. (edit: to be clear, the concentrations that harm fish are nowhere near enough to cause the same level of harm in humans, so no you will not turn gay from drinking tap water) He's still a nutcase con man though, IMO. Mixing in a few grains of truth makes the poisonous ideas go down smoother.
- dmix 7y ago
  All charlatans mix truth with falsehoods. Alex Jones knows exactly what he's doing with his character. Anyway yeah the lack of treatment options sounds like a big roadblock. It seems people can find any fertilizer that doesn't harm the environment somehow either, whatever is being used has already had to jump through a hundred hoops first :/
lordgrenville 7y ago
Scott Alexander wrote a post [1] about how this was a serious ecological concern, but because Alex Jones picked it up (and augmented it with some wacky government-conspiracy stuff) it became impossible to raise awareness for it without sounding like a nut. [1] https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/04/respectability-cascades/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/02/04/respectability-cascade...
- dmix 7y ago
  Love Star codex. It's the best science/rationality blog! Never read a bad article on it.