One of these days I’ll wake up and not be able to find an unhinged climate alarmist story. Today is not that day: Climate Change: Bad News for Baby Boys?
Ask the vicitms of horrific flooding in Pakistan or raging wildfires in the Southwest what the consequences of climate change are, and they’re likely to mention something personal, like a lost family member or damaged property. But a University of California-Berkeley study out this month shows that the impacts of climate change could be biological, too.
Using 150-year-old Swedish family records and temperature data, public health professor Ralph Catalano and his colleagues suggest that rapid and wide temperature fluctuations (one of the expected effects of climate change) could lead to shorter lifespans for some men.
Generally, mothers are less likely to automatically miscarry male fetuses very early in gestation when it’s warm, and more likely to do so when it’s cold, because baby boys are more “frail” in early life than baby girls. But according to the study, warm temperatures could trick more newly-pregnant mothers—or rather, their bodies—into keeping male fetuses they might otherwise have rejected for genetic weakness. Although that would mean an increase in the total number of births, it would also lead to an increase in the number who die young if those baby boys then experience cold temperatures early on, thus driving down average life expectancy.
So, wait, men will live shorter lifespans as it gets warmer, but women are less likely to miscarry them when it is warmer? All because someone drove a presidential limo with dozens of chase vehicles to take a fossil fueled flight from D.C. to NYC, then took a limo ride with tons of chase vehicles? Then did the same a few hours later?
