Albert Einstein and the great ether debate

Is ether theory still valid for incorporation within contemporary physics or not?

I believe that it is. My reasons for saying this are based upon what Einstein said about ether in a public lecture in Germany in 1920. In his latter years Einstein continued to believe that ether was pertinent to both his Special Relativity and General Relativity models but both for different reasons. Einstein made the distinction between an immobile ether in his Special Relativity theory and in his General Relativity hypothesis he determined ether to be necessary to accommodate gravitational waves.

I have copied and posted Einstein’s 1920 lecture below and I have highlighted within the text where he has talked about his belief that ether was an important factor in his thoughts in relationship to both his relativity theories. Einstein continued to believe in ether theory until the closing days of his life, but not necessarily in relationship to his original relativity ideas. As an extension of these words keep in mind that both of Einstein’s relativity theories are the core of modern physics models and theories. Contemporary physics has elected to dismiss ether theory because it is seen an unnecessary. However, later in 1924 Einstein further affirmed his belief in the need for a universal ether. In this later document he said Quote: “…every theory of local action assumes continuous fields, and thus also an existence of an aether’.” The full essay relating to the 1924 lecture is in this pdf file.

Here is Einstein’s 1920 lecture:

Quote:

Einstein: Ether and Relativity

Albert Einstein gave an address on 5 May 1920 at the University of Leiden. He chose as his topic Ether and the Theory of Relativity. He lectured in German but we present an English translation below. The lecture was published by Methuen & Co. Ltd, London, in 1922.

Ether and the Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein

How does it come about that alongside of the idea of ponderable matter, which is derived by abstraction from everyday life, the physicists set the idea of the existence of another kind of matter, the ether? The explanation is probably to be sought in those phenomena which have given rise to the theory of action at a distance, and in the properties of light which have led to the undulatory theory. Let us devote a little while to the consideration of these two subjects.

Outside of physics we know nothing of action at a distance. When we try to connect cause and effect in the experiences which natural objects afford us, it seems at first as if there were no other mutual actions than those of immediate contact, e.g. the communication of motion by impact, push and pull, heating or inducing combustion by means of a flame, etc. It is true that even in everyday experience weight, which is in a sense action at a distance, plays a very important part. But since in daily experience the weight of bodies meets us as something constant, something not linked to any cause which is variable in time or place, we do not in everyday life speculate as to the cause of gravity, and therefore do not become conscious of its character as action at a distance. It was Newton’s theory of gravitation that first assigned a cause for gravity by interpreting it as action at a distance, proceeding from masses. Newton’s theory is probably the greatest stride ever made in the effort towards the causal nexus of natural phenomena. And yet this theory evoked a lively sense of discomfort among Newton’s contemporaries, because it seemed to be in conflict with the principle springing from the rest of experience, that there can be reciprocal action only through contact, and not through immediate action at a distance.

It is only with reluctance that man’s desire for knowledge endures a dualism of this kind. How was unity to be preserved in his comprehension of the forces of nature? Either by trying to look upon contact forces as being themselves distant forces which admittedly are observable only at a very small distance and this was the road which Newton’s followers, who were entirely under the spell of his doctrine, mostly preferred to take; or by assuming that the Newtonian action at a distance is only apparently immediate action at a distance, but in truth is conveyed by a medium permeating space, whether by movements or by elastic deformation of this medium. Thus the endeavour toward a unified view of the nature of forces leads to the hypothesis of an ether. This hypothesis, to be sure, did not at first bring with it any advance in the theory of gravitation or in physics generally, so that it became customary to treat Newton’s law of force as an axiom not further reducible. But the ether hypothesis was bound always to play some part in physical science, even if at first only a latent part.

When in the first half of the nineteenth century the far-reaching similarity was revealed which subsists between the properties of light and those of elastic waves in ponderable bodies, the ether hypothesis found fresh support. It appeared beyond question that light must be interpreted as a vibratory process in an elastic, inert medium filling up universal space. It also seemed to be a necessary consequence of the fact that light is capable of polarisation that this medium, the ether, must be of the nature of a solid body, because transverse waves are not possible in a fluid, but only in a solid. Thus the physicists were bound to arrive at the theory of the “quasi-rigid” luminiferous ether, the parts of which can carry out no movements relatively to one another except the small movements of deformation which correspond to light-waves.

This theory – also called the theory of the stationary luminiferous ether – moreover found a strong support in an experiment which is also of fundamental importance in the special theory of relativity, the experiment of Fizeau, from which one was obliged to infer that the luminiferous ether does not take part in the movements of bodies. The phenomenon of aberration also favoured the theory of the quasi-rigid ether.

The development of the theory of electricity along the path opened up by Maxwell and Lorentz gave the development of our ideas concerning the ether quite a peculiar and unexpected turn. For Maxwell himself the ether indeed still had properties which were purely mechanical, although of a much more complicated kind than the mechanical properties of tangible solid bodies. But neither Maxwell nor his followers succeeded in elaborating a mechanical model for the ether which might furnish a satisfactory mechanical interpretation of Maxwell’s laws of the electro-magnetic field. The laws were clear and simple, the mechanical interpretations clumsy and contradictory. Almost imperceptibly the theoretical physicists adapted themselves to a situation which, from the standpoint of their mechanical programme, was very depressing. They were particularly influenced by the electro-dynamical investigations of Heinrich Hertz. For whereas they previously had required of a conclusive theory that it should content itself with the fundamental concepts which belong exclusively to mechanics (e.g. densities, velocities, deformations, stresses) they gradually accustomed themselves to admitting electric and magnetic force as fundamental concepts side by side with those of mechanics, without requiring a mechanical interpretation for them. Thus the purely mechanical view of nature was gradually abandoned. But this change led to a fundamental dualism which in the long-run was insupportable. A way of escape was now sought in the reverse direction, by reducing the principles of mechanics to those of electricity, and this especially as confidence in the strict validity of the equations of Newton’s mechanics was shaken by the experiments with b-rays and rapid cathode rays.

This dualism still confronts us in unextenuated form in the theory of Hertz, where matter appears not only as the bearer of velocities, kinetic energy, and mechanical pressures, but also as the bearer of electromagnetic fields. Since such fields also occur in vacuo – i.e. in free ether-the ether also appears as bearer of electromagnetic fields. The ether appears indistinguishable in its functions from ordinary matter. Within matter it takes part in the motion of matter and in empty space it has everywhere a velocity; so that the ether has a definitely assigned velocity throughout the whole of space. There is no fundamental difference between Hertz’s ether and ponderable matter (which in part subsists in the ether).

The Hertz theory suffered not only from the defect of ascribing to matter and ether, on the one hand mechanical states, and on the other hand electrical states, which do not stand in any conceivable relation to each other; it was also at variance with the result of Fizeau’s important experiment on the velocity of the propagation of light in moving fluids, and with other established experimental results.

Such was the state of things when H A Lorentz entered upon the scene. He brought theory into harmony with experience by means of a wonderful simplification of theoretical principles. He achieved this, the most important advance in the theory of electricity since Maxwell, by taking from ether its mechanical, and from matter its electromagnetic qualities. As in empty space, so too in the interior of material bodies, the ether, and not matter viewed atomistically, was exclusively the seat of electromagnetic fields. According to Lorentz the elementary particles of matter alone are capable of carrying out movements; their electromagnetic activity is entirely confined to the carrying of electric charges. Thus Lorentz succeeded in reducing all electromagnetic happenings to Maxwell’s equations for free space.

As to the mechanical nature of the Lorentzian ether, it may be said of it, in a somewhat playful spirit, that immobility is the only mechanical property of which it has not been deprived by H A Lorentz. It may be added that the whole change in the conception of the ether which the special theory of relativity brought about, consisted in taking away from the ether its last mechanical quality, namely, its immobility. How this is to be understood will forthwith be expounded.

The space-time theory and the kinematics of the special theory of relativity were modelled on the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of the electromagnetic field. This theory therefore satisfies the conditions of the special theory of relativity, but when viewed from the latter it acquires a novel aspect. For if K be a system of coordinates relatively to which the Lorentzian ether is at rest, the Maxwell-Lorentz equations are valid primarily with reference to K. But by the special theory of relativity the same equations without any change of meaning also hold in relation to any new system of co-ordinates K’ which is moving in uniform translation relatively to K. Now comes the anxious question:- Why must I in the theory distinguish the K system above all K’ systems, which are physically equivalent to it in all respects, by assuming that the ether is at rest relatively to the K system? For the theoretician such an asymmetry in the theoretical structure, with no corresponding asymmetry in the system of experience, is intolerable. If we assume the ether to be at rest relatively to K, but in motion relatively to K’, the physical equivalence of K and K’ seems to me from the logical standpoint, not indeed downright incorrect, but nevertheless unacceptable.

The next position which it was possible to take up in face of this state of things appeared to be the following. The ether does not exist at all. The electromagnetic fields are not states of a medium, and are not bound down to any bearer, but they are independent realities which are not reducible to anything else, exactly like the atoms of ponderable matter. This conception suggests itself the more readily as, according to Lorentz’s theory, electromagnetic radiation, like ponderable matter, brings impulse and energy with it, and as, according to the special theory of relativity, both matter and radiation are but special forms of distributed energy, ponderable mass losing its isolation and appearing as a special form of energy.

More careful reflection teaches us however, that the special theory of relativity does not compel us to deny ether. We may assume the existence of an ether; only we must give up ascribing a definite state of motion to it, i.e. we must by abstraction take from it the last mechanical characteristic which Lorentz had still left it. We shall see later that this point of view, the conceivability of which I shall at once endeavour to make more intelligible by a somewhat halting comparison, is justified by the results of the general theory of relativity.

Think of waves on the surface of water. Here we can describe two entirely different things. Either we may observe how the undulatory surface forming the boundary between water and air alters in the course of time; or else-with the help of small floats, for instance – we can observe how the position of the separate particles of water alters in the course of time. If the existence of such floats for tracking the motion of the particles of a fluid were a fundamental impossibility in physics – if, in fact nothing else whatever were observable than the shape of the space occupied by the water as it varies in time, we should have no ground for the assumption that water consists of movable particles. But all the same we could characterise it as a medium.

We have something like this in the electromagnetic field. For we may picture the field to ourselves as consisting of lines of force. If we wish to interpret these lines of force to ourselves as something material in the ordinary sense, we are tempted to interpret the dynamic processes as motions of these lines of force, such that each separate line of force is tracked through the course of time. It is well known, however, that this way of regarding the electromagnetic field leads to contradictions.

Generalising we must say this:- There may be supposed to be extended physical objects to which the idea of motion cannot be applied. They may not be thought of as consisting of particles which allow themselves to be separately tracked through time. In Minkowski’s idiom this is expressed as follows:- Not every extended conformation in the four-dimensional world can be regarded as composed of world-threads. The special theory of relativity forbids us to assume the ether to consist of particles observable through time, but the hypothesis of ether in itself is not in conflict with the special theory of relativity. Only we must be on our guard against ascribing a state of motion to the ether.

Certainly, from the standpoint of the special theory of relativity, the ether hypothesis appears at first to be an empty hypothesis. In the equations of the electromagnetic field there occur, in addition to the densities of the electric charge, only the intensities of the field. The career of electromagnetic processes in vacuo appears to be completely determined by these equations, uninfluenced by other physical quantities. The electromagnetic fields appear as ultimate, irreducible realities, and at first it seems superfluous to postulate a homogeneous, isotropic ether-medium, and to envisage electromagnetic fields as states of this medium. But on the other hand there is a weighty argument to be adduced in favour of the ether hypothesis. To deny the ether is ultimately to assume that empty space has no physical qualities whatever. The fundamental facts of mechanics do not harmonize with this view. For the mechanical behaviour of a corporeal system hovering freely in empty space depends not only on relative positions (distances) and relative velocities, but also on its state of rotation, which physically may be taken as a characteristic not appertaining to the system in itself. In order to be able to look upon the rotation of the system, at least formally, as something real, Newton objectivises space. Since he classes his absolute space together with real things, for him rotation relative to an absolute space is also something real. Newton might no less well have called his absolute space “Ether”; what is essential is merely that besides observable objects, another thing, which is not perceptible, must be looked upon as real, to enable acceleration or rotation to be looked upon as something real.

It is true that Mach tried to avoid having to accept as real something which is not observable by endeavouring to substitute in mechanics a mean acceleration with reference to the totality of the masses in the universe in place of an acceleration with reference to absolute space. But inertial resistance opposed to relative acceleration of distant masses presupposes action at a distance; and as the modern physicist does not believe that he may accept this action at a distance, he comes back once more, if he follows Mach, to the ether, which has to serve as medium for the effects of inertia. But this conception of the ether to which we are led by Mach’s way of thinking differs essentially from the ether as conceived by Newton, by Fresnel, and by Lorentz. Mach’s ether not only conditions the behaviour of inert masses, but is also conditioned in its state by them.

Mach’s idea finds its full development in the ether of the general theory of relativity. According to this theory the metrical qualities of the continuum of space-time differ in the environment of different points of space-time, and are partly conditioned by the matter existing outside of the territory under consideration. This space-time variability of the reciprocal relations of the standards of space and time, or, perhaps, the recognition of the fact that “empty space” in its physical relation is neither homogeneous nor isotropic, compelling us to describe its state by ten functions (the gravitation potentials gmn), has, I think, finally disposed of the view that space is physically empty. But therewith the conception of the ether has again acquired an intelligible content although this content differs widely from that of the ether of the mechanical undulatory theory of light. The ether of the general theory of relativity is a medium which is itself devoid of all mechanical and kinematical qualities, but helps to determine mechanical (and electromagnetic) events.

What is fundamentally new in the ether of the general theory of relativity as opposed to the ether of Lorentz consists in this, that the state of the former is at every place determined by connections with the matter and the state of the ether in neighbouring places, which are amenable to law in the form of differential equations; whereas the state of the Lorentzian ether in the absence of electromagnetic fields is conditioned by nothing outside itself, and is everywhere the same. The ether of the general theory of relativity is transmuted conceptually into the ether of Lorentz if we substitute constants for the functions of space which describe the former, disregarding the causes which condition its state. Thus we may also say, I think, that the ether of the general theory of relativity is the outcome of the Lorentzian ether, through relativation.

As to the part which the new ether is to play in the physics of the future we are not yet clear. We know that it determines the metrical relations in the space-time continuum, e.g. the configurative possibilities of solid bodies as well as the gravitational fields; but we do not know whether it has an essential share in the structure of the electrical elementary particles constituting matter. Nor do we know whether it is only in the proximity of ponderable masses that its structure differs essentially from that of the Lorentzian ether; whether the geometry of spaces of cosmic extent is approximately Euclidean. But we can assert by reason of the relativistic equations of gravitation that there must be a departure from Euclidean relations, with spaces of cosmic order of magnitude, if there exists a positive mean density, no matter how small, of the matter in the universe.

In this case the universe must of necessity be spatially unbounded and of finite magnitude, its magnitude being determined by the value of that mean density.

If we consider the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field from the standpoint of the ether hypothesis, we find a remarkable difference between the two. There can be no space nor any part of space without gravitational potentials; for these confer upon space its metrical qualities, without which it cannot be imagined at all. The existence of the gravitational field is inseparably bound up with the existence of space. On the other hand a part of space may very well be imagined without an electromagnetic field; thus in contrast with the gravitational field, the electromagnetic field seems to be only secondarily linked to the ether, the formal nature of the electromagnetic field being as yet in no way determined by that of gravitational ether. From the present state of theory it looks as if the electromagnetic field, as opposed to the gravitational field, rests upon an entirely new formal motif, as though nature might just as well have endowed the gravitational ether with fields of quite another type, for example, with fields of a scalar potential, instead of fields of the electromagnetic type.

Since according to our present conceptions the elementary particles of matter are also, in their essence, nothing else than condensations of the electromagnetic field, our present view of the universe presents two realities which are completely separated from each other conceptually, although connected causally, namely, gravitational ether and electromagnetic field, or – as they might also be called – space and matter.

Of course it would be a great advance if we could succeed in comprehending the gravitational field and the electromagnetic field together as one unified conformation. Then for the first time the epoch of theoretical physics founded by Faraday and Maxwell would reach a satisfactory conclusion. The contrast between ether and matter would fade away, and, through the general theory of relativity, the whole of physics would become a complete system of thought, like geometry, kinematics, and the theory of gravitation. An exceedingly ingenious attempt in this direction has been made by the mathematician H Weyl; but I do not believe that his theory will hold its ground in relation to reality. Further, in contemplating the immediate future of theoretical physics we ought not unconditionally to reject the possibility that the facts comprised in the quantum theory may set bounds to the field theory beyond which it cannot pass.

Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense. But this ether may not be thought of as endowed with the quality characteristic of ponderable media, as consisting of parts which may be tracked through time. The idea of motion may not be applied to it.”

From Einstein’s words, more particularly his words that I have emboldened, I hope that my readers may understand why I feel that ether theory in physics remains a valid hypothesis.

Is it true that humans could become extinct if sperm counts in men continue to fall?

It seems that there are sound reasons to believe this may be the case

I believe that you will find the following words in my blog ones to be concerned about. I have elected to combine three media articles into this blog presentation as I believe that they are mutually complementary to each other. There is also overlaps of information between the three of them. The first item is a news story derived from the BBC, the second story is derived from the American Thinker news journal and the third is from ABC Australia’s triple J radio station.

It is these articles that I feel you will find to be most confrontational and disturbing. Amongst other things they talks about extensively about water pollution that emanates from the effects of estrogenic compounds in water supplies, from industry, agriculture  and artificial birth control chemicals flowing into the public water supply system. The article focuses heavily on the dangers of birth control chemicals.

I have emboldened text that I feel may most interest you. I acknowledge that this important information has been derived from secondary sources and furthermore there may be a covert political agenda in the American Thinker article. I will leave it to you to make up your own mind about this matter.

Article 1: [From the BBC]

Sperm count drop ‘could make humans extinct’
By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

25 July 2017

Humans could become extinct if sperm counts in men continue to fall at current rates, a doctor has warned.

Researchers assessing the results of nearly 200 studies say sperm counts among men from North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, seem to have halved in less than 40 years.

Some experts are sceptical of the Human Reproduction Update findings.

But lead researcher Dr Hagai Levine said he was “very worried” about what might happen in the future.

The assessment, one of the largest ever undertaken, brings together the results of 185 studies between 1973 and 2011.

Dr Levine, an epidemiologist, told the BBC that if the trend continued humans would become extinct.

Decline rate ‘increasing’

“If we will not change the ways that we are living and the environment and the chemicals that we are exposed to, I am very worried about what will happen in the future,” he said.

“Eventually we may have a problem, and with reproduction in general, and it may be the extinction of the human species.”

Scientists not involved in the study have praised the quality of the research but say that it may be premature to come to such a conclusion.

Dr Levine, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found a 52.4% decline in sperm concentration, and a 59.3% decline in total sperm count in men from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The study also indicates the rate of decline among men living in these countries is continuing and possibly even increasing.

In contrast, no significant decline was seen in South America, Asia and Africa, but the researchers point out that far fewer studies have been conducted on these continents. However, Dr Levine is concerned that eventually sperm counts could fall in these places too.

Many previous studies have indicated similar sharp declines in sperm count in developed economies, but skeptics say that a large proportion of them have been flawed.

Some have investigated a relatively small number of men, or included only men who attend fertility clinics and are, in any case, more likely to have low sperm counts.

There is also concern that studies that claim to show a decline in sperm counts are more likely to get published in scientific journals than those that do not.

Another difficulty is that early methods of counting sperm may have overestimated the true count.

Taken together these factors may have created a false view of falling sperm counts.

But the researchers claim to have accounted for some of these deficiencies, leaving some doubters, such as Prof Allan Pacey of Sheffield University, less skeptical.

He said: “I’ve never been particularly convinced by the many studies published so far claiming that human sperm counts have declined in the recent past.”

“However, the study today by Dr Levine and his colleagues deals head-on with many of the deficiencies of previous studies.”

But Prof Pacey believes that although the new study has reduced the possibility of errors it does not entirely remove them. So, he says, the results should be treated with caution.

“The debate has not yet been resolved and there is clearly much work still to be done.

“However, the paper does represent a step forward in the clarity of the data which might ultimately allow us to define better studies to examine this issue.”

There is no clear evidence for the reason for this apparent decrease. But it has been linked with exposure to chemicals used in pesticides and plastics, obesity, smoking, stress, diet, and even watching too much TV.

Dr Levine says that there is an urgent need to find out why sperm counts are decreasing and to find ways of reversing the trend.

“We must take action – for example, better regulation of man-made chemicals – and we must continue our efforts on tackling smoking and obesity.”

Sperm count drop ‘could make humans extinct’

Article 2: [From American Thinker]

July 27, 2017
Low sperm counts? Report fails to mention birth control in water supplies
By Monica Showalter

A study has found that male sperm counts have plunged since 1973, citing the evidence found in a large number of studies.  Scientists say a continuation of this trend could mean the human race will go extinct.

A team of scientists is sounding the alarm about declining sperm counts among men in the Western world.

As Hagai Levine, the lead author of a recently published study, told the BBC, “If we will not change the ways that we are living and the environment and the chemicals that we are exposed to, I am very worried about what will happen in the future.”

He added, “Eventually we may have a problem, and with reproduction in general, and it may be the extinction of the human species.”

Sperm counts have fallen an average of 1.2 percent each year, and the compounded effect of that has resulted in a more than 50% drop in sperm counts today.  CBS news reports that it follows a 1992 study that shows the exact same 50% decline, so nothing has changed in the rate of decline; it remains steady.

Sperm concentration decreased an average 52 percent between 1973 and 2011, while total sperm count declined by 59 percent during that period, researchers concluded after combining data from 185 studies. The research involved nearly 43,000 men in all.

“We found that sperm counts and concentrations have declined significantly and are continuing to decline in men from Western countries,” said senior researcher Shanna Swan.

The effect of estrogenic compounds in the water supply from industry, agriculture, and other sources raises concerns about human health and deserves scrutiny.

The one factor the report doesn’t mention, but probably should, is the credible reports of artificial birth control getting into the water supply.

This is not the Catholic Church’s argument against contraception going on here – the Catholic Church opposes artificial contraception because it interferes with the natural male-female relationship in marriage and discourages its use.  This is something entirely different: whether one person’s right to “control her own body” entitles her to damage the reproductive system of another person’s body.  Ultimately, it is a question of whether a man has a right to control his own body, too.  This is deep libertarian territory.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Iain Murray has done significant research on the effects of birth control pills in the water supply, pointing out that its hormones released into the water supply, which can’t be filtered out, are creating “intersex” characteristics and sterility in the fish supply.  Fish exhibit sexual characteristics of both species due to estrogen contamination and cannot reproduce.  Scientific American has noted that despite the claims that the amounts present are small, the presence of them has harmed wildlife in the water supply.  Might be canaries in the coal mine for us.

Writing in 2008, Murray noted:

As I demonstrate in The Really Inconvenient Truths, by any standard typically used by environmentalists, the pill is a pollutant. It does the same thing, just worse, as other chemicals they call pollution. But liberals have gone to extraordinary lengths in order to stop consideration of contraceptive estrogen as a pollutant.

When Bill Clinton’s Environmental Protection Agency launched its program to screen environmental estrogens (a program required under the Food Quality Protection Act), the committee postponed considering impacts from contraceptives. Instead, it has decided to screen and test only “pesticide chemicals, commercial chemicals, and environmental contaminants.” When and if it considers the impacts from oral contraceptives, the Agency says that its consideration will be limited because pharmaceutical regulation is a Food and Drug Administration concern.

As a result, the EPA’s program will focus all energies on the smallest-possible part of endocrine exposure in the environment and the lowest-risk area.

The U.S. Geological Survey has found problems, too.

A recent report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that birth-control hormones excreted by women, flushed into waterways and eventually into drinking water can also impact fish fertility up to three generations after exposure – raising questions about their effects on humans, who are consuming the drugs without even knowing it in each glass of water they drink.

The survey, published in March in the journal Scientific Reports, looked at the impact of the synthetic hormone 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2), an ingredient of most contraceptive pills, in the water of Japanese medaka fish during the first week of their development.

While the exposed fish and their immediate offspring appeared unaffected, the second generation of fish struggled to fertilize eggs – with a 30% reduction in fertilization rates – and their embryos were less likely to survive. Even the third generation of fish had 20% impaired fertility and survival rates, though they were never directly exposed to the hormone.

The article states that there have been problems in mammals, too.

The Vatican, too, has spoken out about the environmental damage of artificial birth control going unfiltered into the water supply, specifically linking it to male infertility. Agence France-Presse reports:

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The pill “has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature” through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report.

“We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill,” he said, without elaborating further.

“We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers,” added Castellvi.

The blame cannot be laid on individuals who are attempting to do something they believe is responsible and useful and who have no intent to harm others.  Nobody here is calling for the pill’s prohibition in a free society, where people of all religions should be free to make their own choices.

There should be reason, however, to look into whether birth control is affecting the water supply and contributing to this species-threatening low sperm count matter.  The science does show that compounds excreted by users are impossible to filter from the water supply, and there are credible reports as to this affecting male fertility.

I would add that the span of years coincides with the rise of birth control pills, and it also coincides with the nations that use it.

A pro-contraception trade group, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, has admitted in a long editorial that there could be a problem, even as it tries to exculpate its industry, citing other possibilities.

The effect of estrogenic compounds in the water supply from industry, agriculture, and other sources raises concerns about human health and deserves scrutiny.

But all we see blamed in this and other editorials are “pesticide chemicals, commercial chemicals, and environmental contaminants,” as National Review’s article notes.

Seriously, why?  Why not investigate everything and, if there is a problem found, find new ways to filter out the pollutants from the water supply?  For all the global warmers’ alarmed claims about the threat to the species, here is a real threat, it’s moving fast, and nothing effective is being done about it.

Low sperm counts? Report fails to mention birth control in water supplies

Article 3: [ABC radio triple J]

Yes, sperm counts are way down: What does this say about men’s health?

The health of sperm in men in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand is falling dramatically. According to 2017 research, sperm counts among Western men have halved since the 1970s.

This widely reported figure has inspired apocalyptic predictions of mass infertility, like something from The Handmaid’s Tale or Children of Men.

But whether or not this comes to pass, the problem is already critical: Poor sperm health is usually an indicator of poor general health. Whatever is hurting the sperm is probably hurting other parts of us too.

Dr Hagai Levine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, lead author of the 2017 study, said that while the research has found men in richer countries are more affected by the decline, that could be because there isn’t as much research from poorer countries.

Chemical pollution and other environmental factors could also be partly responsible, as well as lifestyle factors such as obesity and stress.

“This study is an urgent wake-up call to investigate the causes of the sharp, ongoing drop in sperm count,” Dr Levine said.

In 100 years we may be unable to conceive

Dr Nicole McPherson from the University of Adelaide, who’s leading research into sperm rates of men’s health, also said the causes were both environmental and lifestyle.

“What you eat, your high-sugar diets and lots of red meat intake, the fatter you are, smoking, alcohol intake, illicit drug use – these all negatively impact the quality of your sperm,” she said.

“It’s the environment that we live in, everything we touch.

She said that sperm rates were still high enough for us to conceive, but if they continued to fall at historical rates, we’d have a problem in 100 years.

“If the trend continues – declining at 1.4 per cent every year – in 100 years time we’re definitely going to have a major problem,” she said.

“I don’t know if it will decline continuously or there will be a leveling out of sperm count.”

Yes, sperm counts are way down: What does this say about men’s health?

Interesting matters relating to the sinking of the Titanic in 1912

Interviews, documentaries, press reports, feature films and other material relating to the sinking of the Titanic

 

Press reports:

Depicts the Titanic leaving Belfast, a press ship going out to meet the rescue ship Carpathia, interviews with the survivors, the alleged iceberg itself, crowds of people outside the White Star Line office in New York seeking information about the survivors, Marconi the inventor of the radio apparatus on the Titanic, and like. I think that my readers may be interested in photographs of the surviving crew which you will find between the 3.20 and 4.10 mark. Especially see how the young men in life jackets were lightheartedly behaving after their rescue.

https://vimeo.com/237684619

 

Documentaries:

New documentary adds further light the sinking of the Titanic

I think that you will find this 2016 National Geographic documentary to be very informative and interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzIuh3J5gVI

 

The alleged oldest recorded movie of the Titanic

This movie features Captain Edward J. Smith walking around parts of the deck of the Titanic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlwojjLEr4c

 

Animated real time simulation of the Titanic sinking

I found this video to be disturbingly graphic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs9w5bgtJC8

 

Feature films:

The 1958 movie relating to the sinking of the Titanic

This movie is entitled “A Night to Remember” and features the popular English actor Kenneth More who plays the role of Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ftYho4K3FQ

 

How does an unsinkable ship drown on it’s maiden voyage?

Inside the Titanic. A full length movie about the event

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqSS2v0NvR4

 

Full length Nazi propaganda film about the Titanic

It is in German without subtitles and features exceptional photography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIG2FKFl49o

 

Interviews:

I think what is most interesting about this 1957 interview is the informal nature of the interviewees and that the Titanic sinking was still fresh in their collective minds. In my opinion it is this fact that makes this Titanic sinking story far more personalized than those that were recorded many years later when people were much older. The quality of the film is not good. I feel that you should take special interest in the section that talks about the desperate attempts made by the wireless operator on the Titanic. This is when he was frantically attempting to get the rescue Carpathia to assist the Titanic. The radio operator of the Carpathia was one of the interviewees.

https://vimeo.com/237684697

 

The Last Seven Titanic Survivors Tell Their Story

This is a 1997 remaster of the original interviews

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HchZvjV_4o

 

The last British survivor of the Titanic sinking interviewed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVEvbEE0pwc

 

The last American survivor of the Titanic sinking interviewed

This video has historical background information as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HCv5PMmz3E

 

Other:

In 1898 did Morgan Robertson correctly predict the circumstances in which the Titanic sank?

The answer to this question seems to depend on who you ask

Quote:

“Although the novel was written before the RMS Titanic was even conceptualized, there are some uncanny similarities between both the fictional and real-life versions. Like the Titan, the fictional ship sank in April in the North Atlantic, and there were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers. There are also similarities between the size (800 ft (244 m) long for Titan versus 882 ft 9 in (269 m) long for the Titanic[3]), speed (25 knots for Titan, 22.5 knots for Titanic[4]) and life-saving equipment.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futility, or the Wreck of the Titan

 

The ship Californian was allegedly visually nine miles away instead of nineteen miles away according to some eyewitnesses

One survivor said that she saw a ship standing nearby the Titanic as it was sinking at it probably was the Californian