Fertilizer “crisis” is a man made problem.
That's how the world works.
Submitted 4 hours ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/a07685a4-f878-4cfe-9ad8-8e6d71ba9980.png
Comments
Jollyllama@lemmy.world 11 minutes ago
BigBenis@lemmy.world 42 minutes ago
You think food prices will come back down after it’s all over?
cogitase@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 hour ago
Natural gas is used to produce hydrogen, which is then used in the Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia from nitrogen in the atmosphere. Only about 6% of natural gas is used to produce hydrogen, so even if the price were to rise substantially, we could divert natural gas from other uses and have plenty for making ammonia. We also have other ways of producing hydrogen, it’s just that natural gas is more established.
PEM electrolyzers paired with cheap solar in countries with high insolation can now produce hydrogen for less than the cost of natural gas, but we’re only recently starting to see the construction of the large-scale green ammonia plants needed to accomplish this. Egypt is currently constructing a 100-MW green ammonia plant powered by solar energy. Even if you didn’t have enough PEM eletrolyzers you could still just pass current through some salt water and produce hydrogen, albeit much less efficiently.
It’s not going to be a catastrophic issue.
Rusty@lemmy.ca 20 minutes ago
Fun fact: Fritz Haber, the German guy that invented the Haber-Bosch process is the same Fritz Haber that invented the use of chlorine gas in chemical warfare. He was personally overseeing it’s effect in the battle of Ypres.
The_v@lemmy.world 31 minutes ago
Farmers almost uniformly over-apply N fertilizer. Having it be more expensive and forcing them to look into more efficient ways of applying fertilizer and managing nutrients is not a bad thing.
KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 minutes ago
Unless it just causes the crop to cost more without any change in behavior.
marcos@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
we could divert natural gas from other uses and have plenty for making ammonia. We also have other ways of producing hydrogen
We can’t do any of those in a scale large enough to replace the destruction and have it online for the next planting season on the North Hemisphere. Or the next one on the South Hemisphere either, btw. Or the following ones for each.
BodyBySisyphus@hexbear.net 1 hour ago
Also, while it’s still new, plasma nitrogen has the potential to rapidly scale if the economics stop making sense for Haber-Bosch nitrogen.
StillAlive@piefed.world 4 hours ago
Yes.
Blame Americans.
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 31 minutes ago
Don’t forget Israel.
ObtuseDoorFrame@lemmy.zip 2 hours ago
Comments like this are so ironic because this level of ignorance makes you sound like a Trump voter. You’d fit in really well here amongst the 70 million people who voted for this.
“America” is three continents. And even in the USA this regime is deeply unpopular, hence all the protests. I don’t think we’re all that great at resistance yet, but we are trying.
The wealthy elite in the USA have successfully displaced the blame by convincing the people to fight each other instead of them, and here you are blaming “Americans” instead of the people actually responsible.
plantfanatic@sh.itjust.works 2 hours ago
When someone says American, they mean a USA resident. I don’t know anyone who would assume they mean a Canadian or Mexican, since you use those terms for them.
Scubus@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
America, where there is an actively sitting known pedophile president protecting a group of elite pedophiles
Well, we’re not trying that hard. Seriously, it takes one person to put an end to all this misery and yet we don’t. Until there’s real progress in the US, it’s safe to say that each and every American supports our presidents actions if nothing else through refusal to stop him.
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
American (read by the entire world as USA) culture is the problem.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
Wasn’t the CNN just conducting a poll about the Iran invasion and around 100% of maga was for it, and like 35% of democrats too?
Like insane numbers (am home w bad cold might write errors).
fizzle@quokk.au 3 hours ago
Hey. I quite like Canadians.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu 3 hours ago
I’m partial to the mexicans myself
chakli@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
But they are silent thought.
Scubus@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
Deport your southern neighbors, it’s the American way.
cattywampas@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos.
Soulg@ani.social 2 hours ago
Ah yes it’s all my fault you’re right whoops
Bwaz@lemmy.world 33 minutes ago
In case anyone was wodering how much damage a single idiot in the White House can cause.
perishthethought@piefed.social 2 hours ago
What are pulses?
perishthethought@piefed.social 2 hours ago
Ohhh..
Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses.
azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 1 hour ago
This will only affect poor countries. Rich, industrialized countries have more than enough capacity to make or buy their own fertilizer. Yes prices will go up again, but it’s an economics issue, not anything close to an existential threat. There is simply more than enough calorie production for everyone even with strong perturbations in global shipping. Fertilizer is only a marginal use for methane in terms of volume.
If you live in a poor country however, things are a lot more dire. The price of fertilizer is indexed on the price of gas, of which there is still enough for everyone; but your country will be competing with AI datacenters for the fucking stuff which means millions will have to die so Musk can continue to jerk it to AI child porn.
It’s not a gas pricing issue, it’s a wealth hoarding issue compounded by the aimless crusade of a demented manlet commanded by religious fanatics.
megopie@beehaw.org 1 hour ago
Probably not, ammonia production isn’t exactly a huge portion of natural gas usage, it’ll just have to compete on price with other demands, other things with lower value will get priced out of the market long before nitrogen fertilizer. The price for it will probably go up, already has on futures markets, but not by a huge amount, not even the biggest blip in the past decade. And nitrogen fertilizer is a fairly small portion of overall costs for most agriculture, so it won’t be a significant increase in price.
The places it might have an impact are on products with really narrow profit margins already, like commodity corn in the US (actually a lot of commodity corn breaks even or even is grown at a slight loss because reasons ) and a lot of that goes in to non-food uses like ethanol(for gas), chemical production, or even for use in construction materials.
Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 9 minutes ago
Amazing video link. Makes me want to grow my own organic free range tax breaks!
Emi@ani.social 3 hours ago
How worried should I be? And how much should I doom prep?
dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
just a reminder that none of us can sufficiently “doom prep” and avoid the consequences of large catastrophes like being discussed
beyond typical disaster preparedness: www.ready.gov
probably the best thing would be to develop community ties - get to know your local weirdo farmers doing a CSA, make friends with EMTs, get to know your neighbors, get connected with a local community garden, etc.
We will survive or die together, individual prepping is not going to save you.
HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca 3 hours ago
Individual prepping is only meant to bridge the gap between distaster and community or national assistance/cooperation.
So have some emergency food, water, but prepping properly is actually things like learning to garden well, save seeds, learn to preserve, learn how to forage, build community connections.
SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 3 hours ago
Prepping gets a bad rap from the crazy people building bunkers and zombie traps that people saw on reality tv.
I look at what my grandparents had. They had a garden and canned quite a bit of stuff. They had tools and enough stuff on hand to do basic maintenance and repairs on roofs, plumbing and cars. They sewed quilts and baked their own bread regularly. They had enough cash saved to make sudden purchases for anything else. They had a shotgun for emergencies.
That doesn’t sound crazy or paranoid, but resilient. I know most people can’t do all of that but it would be nice to get closer to the mindset that governments and companies are nice but may not always be able or willing to help you.
fizzle@quokk.au 3 hours ago
The way I look at it is, the easiest 10% of the prep might get you most of the benefits.
A few weeks worth of water, a few days worth of tinned food, that kind of thing.
BurgerBaron@piefed.social 3 hours ago
Preppers will just get robbed.
Screamium@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
If you have land it wouldn’t hurt to have some survival crops. Something like sunchokes (a.k.a. jerusalem artichokes, bad name because they’re not an artichoke and more like a sunflower) can grow well in a sectioned off space where they can’t spread. In an emergency the tubers can be dug up and cooked, though they’ll probably give you a lot of gas from the high incline.
Personally I love raspberries and black raspberries, which are easy to grow just don’t plant them where they can spread and run wild. It’s nice to have fresh berries!
Emi@ani.social 2 hours ago
We do have small hut with few apple trees and some blackberries that we cook from when they grow(we get plenty of apples). Planning to plant something this year but didn’t decide yet, probably tomatoes. Not sure what could grow well in soil that has clay and with low maintenance.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 hour ago
Dude, I’ve been filling my pantry with grains since the pandemic.
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 2 hours ago
If I could, I would make sure it happens. It will do a lot more than screw over food supplies.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
But hey, at least both floods and droughts are becoming more common which is great for crops!
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
America needs to knock off thay 200,000,000 citizens from their population… The last step of project 2025.
JerkyChew@lemmy.world 3 minutes ago
What is a pulse?