Countdown: Amy Cornwall Is Patterson's Greatest Character Since Lindsay Boxer

Product Information

The Sea. The Philippines. A strongly Catholic country which nevertheless is attempting to defy the Church and implement family planning. Who is responsible for the spread of these endocrine disruptors? Corporations (and the governments that “regulate” them). Swan details the history of industrial research and development of chemicals for the sake of cheapening production costs as well as industry’s awareness of their hazards. As an example, even in the 1930s it was observed by scientists that BPAs mimic estrogen. Swan offers numerous other examples highlighting the knowledge corporations had of the dangers of these chemicals, long before broader public awareness, as well as the deceptions and manipulations they have taken to keep profit margins high at the expense of public reproductive health. Swan gives the example of an endocrine disrupting chemical that was banned from an industrial process for its effects…only to be replaced by a chemical that had the exact same effects. Efforts to regulate and tamp down the usage and spread of these chemicals have met with stiff resistance due to intense lobbying as well as misinformation campaigns by these bad actors.

It's just my personal opinion, but this one felt a bit over-done for my tastes. It followed the formula so much that it became predictable and I lost some of my empathy with the characters and their feeling real. At times, the storylines came across as more clinical than creating any emotional connection, as if the writers were trying to do too much rather than finding a good writing rhythm and creating three-dimensional characters that draw the reader in and feel part of the story.But this is just the beginning of a tangled skein of threads that Weisman weaves, threads which include among many others the story of CIMMYT, the Spanish acronym for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (located outside Mexico City and “considered today to be the birthplace of the so-called Green Revolution”}; a bit about CIMMYT’s former director Dr. Norman Borlaug, who received the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for developing a disease-resistant, high-yield strain of wheat (Borlaug has been called “the man who saved a billion lives”); pieces introducing Malthus’ famous 1798 An Essay on the Principle of Population and Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 The Population Bomb; the disdain which has been heaped on Ehrlich ever since because he didn’t anticipate the Green Revolution; and Borlaug’s own words, from his Nobel acceptance speech, which shoot down those who believe that Borlaug had put Malthus (and Ehrlich) in their places: eco-friendly" алтернативи. На доста места срещаме изсмукани от пръстите спекулации, базирани на далечна екстраполация на несвързани данни. Черешката на тортата е твърдението, че някои ендокринно активни вещества са по-опасни в ПО-НИСКИ дози, отколкото в по-високи. Брадфорд Хил се обръща в гроба си.

Swan also does an exploration of the demographic effects of declining fertility-- how the young generally support the elderly and the implications this has for the future. The scary part is that this topic isn't a hypothetical- it is already happening in some places and is starting to impact societies in others.Similarly, proactive behavior could take the form of individual choice (with possible encouragement or reward by the state)or state mandated programmes. China’s one-child policy is the well-known example of the latter; Weisman explores examples of the former in several countries (Costa Rica, the Philippines, Iran, Thailand). While I do not share Weisman’s apparent moral outrage at the Chinese policy (which seems to have been somewhat victimized by Western propaganda, based on what Weisman reports in the book), there is no doubt that individual choice is preferable. Shrink and Prosper.Japan. Japan’s demographers and economists have been worrying for many years about the coming situation in which they will have so many old people relative to younger people of working age. They definitely are not contemplating trying to breed their way out of the problem. Nor are they attempting to encourage immigration, since they are a very homogeneous society and like it that way. Safe Sex. Thailand. According to World Bank figures, Thailand had a fertility rate of 6.15 in 1960; in 1970 it had started slightly downward, to 5.6. But by 1990 it had plunged to 2.11, and today (2011) it stands at 1.56 – below replacement. Carrying Capacity and the Cradle. Partly about Costa Rica, the first Latin American country to embrace birth control and begin to emancipate women. Swan also links the increased presence of endocrine disruptors in the environment to changes in sexual biology and behavior across species. The effects of endocrine disruptors on wildlife have been widely studied and established, linking them with the increased numbers of intersex organisms (especially in marine life) as well as the increased incidence of same-sex sexual behaviors in organisms. Swan takes it a step further, bringing forth research establishing that humans are no exception to this pattern. Swan argues that much of what is driving what has been termed “gender fluidity”—transgenderism, homosexuality in various forms, and other sexual behaviors to a heightened frequency—is corollary of the increased presence of endocrine disruptors in the environment. Needless to say, no matter how much hard science Swan brings to bear this is a highly controversial take given the implication of homosexual behavior as “aberrant.” She takes care to disabuse the reader of notions of any malevolent or prejudicial intentions, but my sense is many will not take kindly to her points.