The Earth Is Sick, And It’s Shrinking Dicks

As penis sizes and sperm count decline, something called petro-masculinity is to blame.

POSTED 03.05.21 21:35 BY LAUREN WATERS

So, apparently, Mother Nature is taking her revenge out on penises. It’s about time! Just kidding… Sort of. But, the correlation between cis men and harming the environment is no joke. Rachel Howell, a sustainable development lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, told The Guardian, “research suggests that women have higher levels of socialization to care about others and be socially responsible, which then leads them to care about environmental problems and be willing to adopt environmental behaviors. [sic]”

As environmental educator, Isaias Hernandez, explained via Dazed, “there’s an intersection between the fossil fuel sector, the climate crisis, and toxic masculinity.” So, masculinity is even more toxic than we thought. In fact, there’s a word for this: petro-masculinity. According to Virginia Tech political scientist, Cara Daggett, via the Huffington Post, “the concept of petro-masculinity suggests that fossil fuels mean more than profit; fossil fuels also contribute to making identities, which poses risks for post-carbon energy politics.”

As Aaron M. McCright and Riley E. Dunlap said in their study in journal Global Environmental Change titled “Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States,” “Perhaps white males see less risk in the world because they create, manage, control, and benefit from so much of it,” They went on to say, “Perhaps women and nonwhite men see the world as more dangerous because in many ways they are more vulnerable, because they benefit less from many of its technologies and institutions, and because they have less power and control.”

So, in order to get climate change under control, we need something to get the cis white men in charge on board. Since their own fast-approaching mortality apparently won't do it, what's something that would actually bother them enough to act? Like, I don’t know… what if their junk shrunk? Well, looks like that’s already happening. According to Dr. Shanna Swan, one of the world's leading environmental and reproductive epidemiologist’s book, Count Down, pollution from phthalates (chemicals that are used to make plastic flexible) is causing an increasing number of babies to be born with small penises. Additionally, according to a study Dr. Swan found in her research, sperm levels among healthy men in Western countries have dropped over 50% over the past 40 years. That’s a pretty serious number, and it’s Dr. Swan’s belief that by 2045, most men won’t be able to produce viable sperm at all thanks to pollution. If our own imminent extinction isn’t enough of a wake-up call, we’re definitely screwed. So, to quote climate activist, Greta Thunberg’s, tweet in response to this news, “See you all at the next Climate Strike.”