This week I heard and read two things that I wanted to respond to. One was a Northwest Herald article that I think was reprinted from one of the bigger papers. The idea was that global warming was melting the Arctic (north pole) ice cap (true) which was going to result in extinctions of arctic wildlife (probably true) and flooding of places like Florida (not true).
The second was a discussion on NRP (National Public Radio) about a group handing out flavored condoms (I think at a school, but I don't remember for sure). One person explained that it was because of the growing spread of aids among homosexuals.
Now, about melting polar ice:
Floating ice displaces as much water as it would if it was melted. Put a bunch of ice in a glass, and fill it the rest of the way with water. When you come back later and all the ice is melted, the water level in the glass hasn't changed. The northern ice cap is nearly completely floating. It melting (regardless of how long it takes) isn't going to change ocean water levels. There would be plenty of other effects, but not global flooding. The Antarctic (south pole) cap is sitting on land. If it melts there would be flooding, because it isn't already displacing all that water.
As for those flavored condoms, I think there was a very different problem being addressed. It's not oral sex between young gays that's the larger concern. The problem is that oral sex is becoming more and more common among younger and younger people. Ask the 15-25 or so demographic. Oral sex is more and more not being considered sex. Just another step past kissing.
And yet it's one of the most common ways to spread herpes. Here's what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has to say about how common herpes is:
Nationwide, at least 45 million people ages 12 and older, or one out of five adolescents and adults, have had genital HSV infection. Between the late 1970s and the early 1990s, the number of Americans with genital herpes infection increased 30 percent.One out of four.Genital HSV-2 infection is more common in women (approximately one out of four women) than in men (almost one out of five). This may be due to male-to-female transmissions being more likely than female-to-male transmission.
Read that again.
Got it? That is a staggering number. One out of four. And yet is there a public outcry about the epidemic? Somehow not. Sure, herpes doesn't kill. But it is untreatable, and the number is only getting higher. There are implications there for how society views sexuality. How wide-spread does it have to get before people start thinking about it? It makes me glad I'm not single.
One out of four. Shudder. And yet somehow it's the gay behavior that the conservative-morality crowd is worried about...
Posted by fictionman at November 12, 2004 06:57 AM | TrackBack (0)