Greedy humans, wanting to eat and all.
If farms can cut down on the amount of nitrogen they need for what they are growing, that’s great. That’s so much less fertilizer that has to be hauled around in the fields.
But on the main, this looks like yet another chicken little scenario.
Can we put these idiot crusaders on an island somewhere so the rest of us can just try to survive in peace?
Let’s worry about all the iron that will be in the blood of the billions of people in the future. There is only a 4000 mile wide ball of iron at the center of the Earth. The atmosphere is only 79 % Nitrogen so we will probably run out before the iron is depleted. And what about that asteroid screaming toward us...
Sarc/off
Is a Virus the Cause of Fatigue Syndrome?
Rapid-Test Sensitivity for Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus in Humans
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Dissemination of more information to agricultural areas on soil testing would be wiser, but the thieves want to regulate more for other reasons (to kill the competition for their real bosses).
Lawrence Solomon: The end is near ( global warming scare is all over but the shouting )
I, and most gardeners & farmers, innoculate legumes with rhizobia species before planting in areas where they haven't grown for a few years, and that puts them into the soil to fix nitrogen both for the legumes during the current season, and residually for later crops.
Sounds like a similar, but 'reverse', process is needed: introduce marine denitrifiers into, or upstream of, dead zones.
Not a panacaea, and not as simple as this one-step would suggest; but certainly wouldn't hurt to experiment with them.
Great post! I heard this attack on nitrogen earlier.
When will TOTUS proclaim farming dangerous?
Shakespeare was wrong, he should have written:
“The first thing we must do, is kill all the scientists,”
These issues should be addressed scientifically, not by assuming they either are or are not true based on what is essentially a political agenda.
IOW, the boy who cries wolf is sometimes telling the truth.
I have no idea whether actual wolves are associated with this particular story. Only a few people in the world have the background to be able to critique it one way or the other.
No, I say there’s too damn much oxygen. For one thing, it makes steel rust. Just think how much longer things would last if we got rid of oxygen. It’s a major component of the infamous dihydrogen monoxide so many people fear.
Note Haber while a brilliant chemist, had a more checkered past. His nitrogen fixation process prolonged WW-I as the British naval blockage had choked off the importation of natural nitrates used to make munitions. Haber also recommended the use of poison gas in warfare and personally supervised the first field trials of a gas weapon on the Western front.
The CO2 panic is running out of steam. We need a new crisis to justify global totalitarian gov’t?