While the world rightly focuses on the human carnage, energy crisis and economic costs from the war in Ukraine, another human toll is quietly unfolding.
Good post, environMENTAL. Both Russia and China are working behind the scenes in the industrialized west and in Asia to convince governments to adopt energy policies that serve Russia's and China's self-interest. Asia and the industrialized west ignore this reality at their peril.
One way to reduce the population of countries not aligned with the western world values is to exacerbate and prolong their food shortages - a convenient by-product of going green. Bravo, Greta...
The UN have had billions over decades to end third world hunger - it’s still starving, where’s the money gone? Current nut zero policies will increase global hunger, but, if we send the UN more billions they can save us from those nasty fellow globalists who want to starve us, oh the irony
Even though as we understand it most of the corn grown for ethanol is not food grade, it's still using land that could grow food (for animals for protein for humans, or simply for human consumption). Per our post "Crying Fowl", there is a conservation alternative for that land if the case can be made that using it for growing corn for human, animal or gas booze isn't necessary. To be fair, some/most of that alternative requires subsidies to one extent or another (e.g. Conservation Reserve Program).
Boils down to what we value, what our priorities are. We do not have them balanced properly. Yet.
thanks! We have quite a large amount of water, and it seems we have a large supply in the air of CO2. Was wondering if by some process that could be combined to create methane. Obviously, chemistry was not my strong suit! thanks again.
Congratulations on a wonderful article connecting Dr. Carl Bosch, Dr. Fritz Haber, Dr. Norman Borlaug, and full bellies! I would suspect none of the "intellectuals" developing energy policies today have any knowledge of these three. Keep up the good work!
What always disturbs me about the criticism of ammonia-based fertilizers is that the critics point out its manufacture creates carbon dioxide, without giving it credit for what some researchers say is a 49% increase in biomass in crops where it is used. So is all that CO2 generated by forming ammonia actually just creating a larger carbon sink (while being blamed for increasing CO2 levels)?
Nice post, thank you. I'm curious about a chemistry problem: is it possible to combine water with CO2 to yield methane and Oxygen? CO2 + 2H2O --> CH4 +2O2? Would it be a net energy gain or loss?
A big energy loss. You are just reversing the combustion of Methane so you have to put at least that much energy back into the process. Good for Elon Musk refueling his rockets on Mars but not much else.
CO2 + H2O--> H2CO3 (carbonic acid). However, methanogenic bacteria, make CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2H2O. These bacteria are common in the human gut, in ungulates, are employed in sewage treatment plants, and are present as extremophiles in mid-ocean ridges, as well as in deep rock deposits. Where they are found in the subsurface they are responsible for commercially exploited gas fields, known as biogenic methane fields. They are common in major gas fields of Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois and all over the world. Significant amounts of commercially available natural gas are generated daily by methanogenic bacteria (and yet the uninformed still call it fossil fuel). Much, if not most, of the methane produced from coal beds comes from methanogens, and coal-bed methane was once the largest supply of natural gas in the United States, before the shale revolution.
Are you familiar with Thomas Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere". He considers methane to be abiotic and the fuel for the origin of life, deep in the oceans as hydrocarbon processors. Needless to say, there is a lot we don't know about our deep oceans.
Pike Lake Provincial Park, about 70 clicks (?) SW of Saskatoon, looking over S. Saskatchewan river valley. We've been trying hard to find an unkind, angry, selfish human somewhere between there and the northern Peace River valley of AB for over 20 years now in Sept./Oct. and haven't found one yet. In 2021, we gave up trying. If someone gave us a pen and a map and said "circle the one place on planet earth with the highest percentage of kind people" that would have to be it.
(But, our blood is too thin for Dec - April there!)
When Palliser went through he told Ottawa to keep people away as it was unlivable.
Then when the cpr came through years later and they saw water and grass and game they figured he must have been doing drugs.
I grew up just to the north of the area. There is a sand hills lookout area east of Burstall, in the early 90s we climbed up there and it was Sahara desert, now it’s mostly grass but the dunes are expanding again.
People take large appliance box cardboard and slide down the leading face, which faces east
OK, b/c we love the region and the people, we spent some time studying Palliser and Macoun and his expeditions in the 1880s with Fleming, and their contrary findings. Thank you for the tip!
Extrapolating forward, adding in our limited boots-on-the-ground experience, it occurs to us that both were right, just viewing the landscape in different eras. With large buffalo herds and drought, one view. With the buffalo hunted from the area and a series of wet years decades later, a different view.
We started going to the region in 2001. Apparently it was what would turn out to be a string of ~20 wetter years, following dry years/drought in the late 1980s/1990s. It appears that the pendulum has swung back over the last 2-3 years. Very concerning. First for our friends there, second for global grain production/food supply, and third for waterfowl.
To the point of the post, lose acreage in some regions planted due to drought, get reduced yields in the remainder of acreage planted/harvested in those region. War reduces still more. Grain shipments used as geopolitical leverage. All at a time of growing grain demand for human consumption and for livestock feed for human protein. Have that compound over area/time for a few years and we can see where this could reverse decades of gains in per capita caloric intake globally.
Thank you very much for the tip on Palliser's Triangle. This is a feature of our Substack that we greatly enjoy that we hoped for in our initial post explaining our purpose: we greatly enjoy learning from our subscribers and readers. It is very rewarding for us. Hat tip!
You get a 10 out of 10 with this post from me. The problems of poverty, starvation, and even mass deaths would disappear with just a little more thoughtfulness. Regrettably, the average person is blind to the the solution.
There's never been a good idea that hasn't been opposed by well-fed, ignorant, manipulative elitists, who, without a shred of consciousness , never consider the human suffering their evil ideas cause. You mention the politically cased tragedy in Sri Lanka and I'm immediately reminded of Pol Pot's evil vision of utopia with nearly 1/3 of Cambodians dead. You mentioned the work of the brilliant Norman Borlaug and yet in popular appeal Rachel Carson fill more pages of history.
A book I'm reading, "From Miracle to Menace," Alberta, a carbon history graphically shows how political and environmental interference have kept energy development to a snail's pace, largely by restricting access to deep sea and transcontinental shipping.
You talk about the global problem with food and fuel but there is one more aspect, finance, that actually override them both. As you say, the EU has malinvested so very much in impoverishing energy schemes that their own affluence is threatened, reminding me of the fact that our tolerance for abuse from the political class seems to have no boundary. Taxes are the price we pay for the privilege of doing self-supporting activities. The book mentioned above, shows just how had we'll work in order to be productive, even when fought by a government penalizes thrift and rewards those who waste both their time and energy with irresponsible behaviour.
It's rather easy to see that human sensibility remains in short supply.
Trudeau and his eco-terrorist so-called Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steven Guibealt, are destroying Canada one Province at a time, starting with Alberta, where one Liberal was elected in the entire Province and where Trudeau’s father is still reviled. Guibealt was a Greenpeace activist, and still is. This country is in real trouble nut I am relieved to see Trudeau and his army of misfits are tanking in the polls. Canada could increase food and fuel production and ship throughout the world but these fools in charge have put laws in place that shackle our productivity and ability to ship. I will get that book, Miracle to Menace, thanks for introducing it.
Thanks for holding that succinct assessment of the Trudeau government. I personally believe it was Gerald Butts that poisoned the well, so to speak , as during his tenure pretty well very agency has been staff with his green agenda supporting picks. It certainly seems economic destruction has been the goal.
About the book ... about a third of the way into the book the author shares that he holds the view that CO2 does cause earth warming and he also believes there is a role for government in the economy. His history of the Alberta energy industry still make it a worthwhile read.
Agree with your Butts comment. He still lurks in the halls of power. C02 is not the problem. It’s being USED to force Agenda30 on the populations of the world which means the powers that be must think us truly stupid! C02 is a benefit to the world, we could use more of it. Plants need it to grow. Plants produce Oxygen which we need to breath. It does not warm the earth, it is beneficial.
And a greenhouse works because of glass, not gas. The earth continuously achieve a net zero energy balance, second by second. Thermodynamic equilibrium is our fate. ;-)
"...the EU has malinvested so very much in impoverishing energy schemes that their own affluence is threatened,"
But it's not incompetence as you infer but their deliberate aim - or haven't you been following the WEF ,who not only have "their people" in government worldwide but also as a body recognized by world leaders, seem to dictate policies to them. THEY know that a country's economic success is dependent on a reliable energy supply and that's why the energy policies they promote are destined/designed to fail.
I don't disagree with you. There are manipulative and even truly evil people in this world. The real conundrum is, why are the decent people, who ultimately will pay the price, so willing to give them power? All of the idiocy can likely be stopped if a few more people spoke up in a persuasive manner.
Sep 9, 2023·edited Sep 9, 2023Liked by environMENTAL
Heavy stuff. It would seem the goal of these environmentalists is to halve or even quarter the population of humans, mostly in the Third World of Planet Earth. They're comforted with the knowledge that they're rich enough that being poor and starving, for a little while, is a choice.
Many quite openly state what they think is the “ideal” human population all the way down to 100million and lower.
Reduction of 99%
Because they are geniuses they know what the right population should be just as they know what the right co2 level is and the right global temperature.
Hubris is too small a word to describe these creatures.
At some point it will become clear to a large majority that it will come down to them or us, and it’s going to get ugly as there are a lot more of us.
Sep 9, 2023·edited Sep 9, 2023Liked by environMENTAL
Here's my history of Fritz Haber (Father of Chemical Warfare) and Carl Bosch, for those interested in reading more. One nitpicky historical fact that doesn't matter much for your argument, but ofc Haber and Bosch got hydrogen from coke not natural gas. It is chemically feasible, though perhaps not economical, to get hydrogen from water instead.
Either way, much more gas and coal gets burned for energy in the nitrate production process than is actually incorporated into the end product as a source of hydrogen.
More to the point, a bigger threat to global food security than access to fertilizer is crop failure due to extreme weather exacerbated by global warming. Not that you'd ever admit that.
No it ain't a bigger factor. Agricultural skill, methods and associated tech is FAR more significant than any possible increase in drought or high temperatures caused by Climate Change. Increasing CO2 = increased plant growth, and warmer temperatures opens up vast areas of the largest land area on Earth = northern arboreal forest & taiga to agriculture. Climate change should not be a negative overall in terms of Agricultural production. Irrational Climate Change Alarmism is definitely a BIG negative in terms of food supply.
hi author, great article! Happy to be educated on this, but it appears that the IPCC models analyse data starting in 1950s to draw the conclusion that extreme weather events have increased and should continue to increase with high confidence (https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-11/) Do you have data to the contrary? Would be curious as to your argument. Tks
As extreme weather is not increasing as per the IPCC while growing seasons increase and crop yields grow (except when purposely decreased as the article states), you are basically wrong about everything.
Sep 9, 2023·edited Sep 9, 2023Liked by environMENTAL
I’d call it “The Great Leap Forward to Net-Zero”. Not sure if the resultant famine after Mao’s original campaign were intentional, but this time it certainly is.
Another outstanding article. Thank you for bringing up the issue of food for the masses. I read the book, "The Alchemy of Air" which described the Fritz Haber and Carl Bosh invention of reactors to turn the air with natural gas into ammonia and how the head of Royal Society of Scientists in 1900 proclaimed that the planet could not support more than 2 Billion people. Then along comes Haber! I wrote on my blog about the uselessness of the U.N. for world Peace. It seems odd that they (The UN) is more interested in Ruling the World than in stopping wars and feeding the people in Developing countries. http://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/04/05/energy-world-peace/
That is an interesting number. Do you have a source? Please advise, thank you.
We need another 400ppm atmospheric CO2, at least - optimal plant growth requires 800-1300ppm - we are in dire deficit
Good post, environMENTAL. Both Russia and China are working behind the scenes in the industrialized west and in Asia to convince governments to adopt energy policies that serve Russia's and China's self-interest. Asia and the industrialized west ignore this reality at their peril.
One way to reduce the population of countries not aligned with the western world values is to exacerbate and prolong their food shortages - a convenient by-product of going green. Bravo, Greta...
The UN have had billions over decades to end third world hunger - it’s still starving, where’s the money gone? Current nut zero policies will increase global hunger, but, if we send the UN more billions they can save us from those nasty fellow globalists who want to starve us, oh the irony
And here is data on cost of producing ethanol/gasoline. It only makes sense if you are receiving large subsidies. Meanwhile, as the world appears to be malnourished, we burn food rather than eat it. Whew.... https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/07/the-stupidest-federal-subsidy.html
Even though as we understand it most of the corn grown for ethanol is not food grade, it's still using land that could grow food (for animals for protein for humans, or simply for human consumption). Per our post "Crying Fowl", there is a conservation alternative for that land if the case can be made that using it for growing corn for human, animal or gas booze isn't necessary. To be fair, some/most of that alternative requires subsidies to one extent or another (e.g. Conservation Reserve Program).
Boils down to what we value, what our priorities are. We do not have them balanced properly. Yet.
thanks! We have quite a large amount of water, and it seems we have a large supply in the air of CO2. Was wondering if by some process that could be combined to create methane. Obviously, chemistry was not my strong suit! thanks again.
We are actually in CO2 deficit - optimal plant growth requires 800-1300ppm, at our current 420ppm, we are starving ourselves out of existence
Congratulations on a wonderful article connecting Dr. Carl Bosch, Dr. Fritz Haber, Dr. Norman Borlaug, and full bellies! I would suspect none of the "intellectuals" developing energy policies today have any knowledge of these three. Keep up the good work!
Thanks, very kind of you to notice and comment!
What always disturbs me about the criticism of ammonia-based fertilizers is that the critics point out its manufacture creates carbon dioxide, without giving it credit for what some researchers say is a 49% increase in biomass in crops where it is used. So is all that CO2 generated by forming ammonia actually just creating a larger carbon sink (while being blamed for increasing CO2 levels)?
The critics don’t understand the role CO2 plays in assuring life on earth - they are stupid, or dangerous
Good question.
Nice post, thank you. I'm curious about a chemistry problem: is it possible to combine water with CO2 to yield methane and Oxygen? CO2 + 2H2O --> CH4 +2O2? Would it be a net energy gain or loss?
A big energy loss. You are just reversing the combustion of Methane so you have to put at least that much energy back into the process. Good for Elon Musk refueling his rockets on Mars but not much else.
Thanks!
CO2 + H2O--> H2CO3 (carbonic acid). However, methanogenic bacteria, make CO2 + 4 H2 → CH4 + 2H2O. These bacteria are common in the human gut, in ungulates, are employed in sewage treatment plants, and are present as extremophiles in mid-ocean ridges, as well as in deep rock deposits. Where they are found in the subsurface they are responsible for commercially exploited gas fields, known as biogenic methane fields. They are common in major gas fields of Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois and all over the world. Significant amounts of commercially available natural gas are generated daily by methanogenic bacteria (and yet the uninformed still call it fossil fuel). Much, if not most, of the methane produced from coal beds comes from methanogens, and coal-bed methane was once the largest supply of natural gas in the United States, before the shale revolution.
Are you familiar with Thomas Gold's "Deep Hot Biosphere". He considers methane to be abiotic and the fuel for the origin of life, deep in the oceans as hydrocarbon processors. Needless to say, there is a lot we don't know about our deep oceans.
thank you.
Drought in western canada is centered on SW Sask and S.E. Alberta, it is a very dry year
Look up “Palliser’s triangle” to understand it
Drought is unfortunately common
Fascinating. We've been in it almost a dozen times and never knew that. Have a friend near Pike Lake, SK.
Thanks!
And every lake in Sask is Pike lake!!
😀
Slough sharks are everywhere
Fair point!
Pike Lake Provincial Park, about 70 clicks (?) SW of Saskatoon, looking over S. Saskatchewan river valley. We've been trying hard to find an unkind, angry, selfish human somewhere between there and the northern Peace River valley of AB for over 20 years now in Sept./Oct. and haven't found one yet. In 2021, we gave up trying. If someone gave us a pen and a map and said "circle the one place on planet earth with the highest percentage of kind people" that would have to be it.
(But, our blood is too thin for Dec - April there!)
I’m from west of Saskatoon, live in calgary but have a place on a lake south of swift current and can confirm it’s been a dry year.
Grasshoppers bad although it takes multi year drought for the biblical references to be valid.
Yes, it’s funny
When Palliser went through he told Ottawa to keep people away as it was unlivable.
Then when the cpr came through years later and they saw water and grass and game they figured he must have been doing drugs.
I grew up just to the north of the area. There is a sand hills lookout area east of Burstall, in the early 90s we climbed up there and it was Sahara desert, now it’s mostly grass but the dunes are expanding again.
People take large appliance box cardboard and slide down the leading face, which faces east
OK, b/c we love the region and the people, we spent some time studying Palliser and Macoun and his expeditions in the 1880s with Fleming, and their contrary findings. Thank you for the tip!
Extrapolating forward, adding in our limited boots-on-the-ground experience, it occurs to us that both were right, just viewing the landscape in different eras. With large buffalo herds and drought, one view. With the buffalo hunted from the area and a series of wet years decades later, a different view.
We started going to the region in 2001. Apparently it was what would turn out to be a string of ~20 wetter years, following dry years/drought in the late 1980s/1990s. It appears that the pendulum has swung back over the last 2-3 years. Very concerning. First for our friends there, second for global grain production/food supply, and third for waterfowl.
To the point of the post, lose acreage in some regions planted due to drought, get reduced yields in the remainder of acreage planted/harvested in those region. War reduces still more. Grain shipments used as geopolitical leverage. All at a time of growing grain demand for human consumption and for livestock feed for human protein. Have that compound over area/time for a few years and we can see where this could reverse decades of gains in per capita caloric intake globally.
Thank you very much for the tip on Palliser's Triangle. This is a feature of our Substack that we greatly enjoy that we hoped for in our initial post explaining our purpose: we greatly enjoy learning from our subscribers and readers. It is very rewarding for us. Hat tip!
You get a 10 out of 10 with this post from me. The problems of poverty, starvation, and even mass deaths would disappear with just a little more thoughtfulness. Regrettably, the average person is blind to the the solution.
There's never been a good idea that hasn't been opposed by well-fed, ignorant, manipulative elitists, who, without a shred of consciousness , never consider the human suffering their evil ideas cause. You mention the politically cased tragedy in Sri Lanka and I'm immediately reminded of Pol Pot's evil vision of utopia with nearly 1/3 of Cambodians dead. You mentioned the work of the brilliant Norman Borlaug and yet in popular appeal Rachel Carson fill more pages of history.
A book I'm reading, "From Miracle to Menace," Alberta, a carbon history graphically shows how political and environmental interference have kept energy development to a snail's pace, largely by restricting access to deep sea and transcontinental shipping.
You talk about the global problem with food and fuel but there is one more aspect, finance, that actually override them both. As you say, the EU has malinvested so very much in impoverishing energy schemes that their own affluence is threatened, reminding me of the fact that our tolerance for abuse from the political class seems to have no boundary. Taxes are the price we pay for the privilege of doing self-supporting activities. The book mentioned above, shows just how had we'll work in order to be productive, even when fought by a government penalizes thrift and rewards those who waste both their time and energy with irresponsible behaviour.
It's rather easy to see that human sensibility remains in short supply.
History is full of forced starvations of the masses by ideological tyrants - the climate con is just another version
Trudeau and his eco-terrorist so-called Environment and Climate Change Minister, Steven Guibealt, are destroying Canada one Province at a time, starting with Alberta, where one Liberal was elected in the entire Province and where Trudeau’s father is still reviled. Guibealt was a Greenpeace activist, and still is. This country is in real trouble nut I am relieved to see Trudeau and his army of misfits are tanking in the polls. Canada could increase food and fuel production and ship throughout the world but these fools in charge have put laws in place that shackle our productivity and ability to ship. I will get that book, Miracle to Menace, thanks for introducing it.
Thanks for holding that succinct assessment of the Trudeau government. I personally believe it was Gerald Butts that poisoned the well, so to speak , as during his tenure pretty well very agency has been staff with his green agenda supporting picks. It certainly seems economic destruction has been the goal.
About the book ... about a third of the way into the book the author shares that he holds the view that CO2 does cause earth warming and he also believes there is a role for government in the economy. His history of the Alberta energy industry still make it a worthwhile read.
Agree with your Butts comment. He still lurks in the halls of power. C02 is not the problem. It’s being USED to force Agenda30 on the populations of the world which means the powers that be must think us truly stupid! C02 is a benefit to the world, we could use more of it. Plants need it to grow. Plants produce Oxygen which we need to breath. It does not warm the earth, it is beneficial.
And a greenhouse works because of glass, not gas. The earth continuously achieve a net zero energy balance, second by second. Thermodynamic equilibrium is our fate. ;-)
"...the EU has malinvested so very much in impoverishing energy schemes that their own affluence is threatened,"
But it's not incompetence as you infer but their deliberate aim - or haven't you been following the WEF ,who not only have "their people" in government worldwide but also as a body recognized by world leaders, seem to dictate policies to them. THEY know that a country's economic success is dependent on a reliable energy supply and that's why the energy policies they promote are destined/designed to fail.
I don't disagree with you. There are manipulative and even truly evil people in this world. The real conundrum is, why are the decent people, who ultimately will pay the price, so willing to give them power? All of the idiocy can likely be stopped if a few more people spoke up in a persuasive manner.
Thanks!
Always be an ant, never a grasshopper
Heavy stuff. It would seem the goal of these environmentalists is to halve or even quarter the population of humans, mostly in the Third World of Planet Earth. They're comforted with the knowledge that they're rich enough that being poor and starving, for a little while, is a choice.
Many quite openly state what they think is the “ideal” human population all the way down to 100million and lower.
Reduction of 99%
Because they are geniuses they know what the right population should be just as they know what the right co2 level is and the right global temperature.
Hubris is too small a word to describe these creatures.
At some point it will become clear to a large majority that it will come down to them or us, and it’s going to get ugly as there are a lot more of us.
Most of them at the top of the Pyramid are saying 1-2B is their goal.
Yes
Eliminating only 6-7 billion is so much better
/sarc
Here's my history of Fritz Haber (Father of Chemical Warfare) and Carl Bosch, for those interested in reading more. One nitpicky historical fact that doesn't matter much for your argument, but ofc Haber and Bosch got hydrogen from coke not natural gas. It is chemically feasible, though perhaps not economical, to get hydrogen from water instead.
https://apocalypse-confidential.com/2023/04/22/nitrogen/
Either way, much more gas and coal gets burned for energy in the nitrate production process than is actually incorporated into the end product as a source of hydrogen.
More to the point, a bigger threat to global food security than access to fertilizer is crop failure due to extreme weather exacerbated by global warming. Not that you'd ever admit that.
No it ain't a bigger factor. Agricultural skill, methods and associated tech is FAR more significant than any possible increase in drought or high temperatures caused by Climate Change. Increasing CO2 = increased plant growth, and warmer temperatures opens up vast areas of the largest land area on Earth = northern arboreal forest & taiga to agriculture. Climate change should not be a negative overall in terms of Agricultural production. Irrational Climate Change Alarmism is definitely a BIG negative in terms of food supply.
Don't think that's nitpicky at all. Will verify and correct with editor's note tomorrow.
And yes, we would happily admit it if we believed the evidence showed that. But, it doesn't despite the fact that models might.
hi author, great article! Happy to be educated on this, but it appears that the IPCC models analyse data starting in 1950s to draw the conclusion that extreme weather events have increased and should continue to increase with high confidence (https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/chapter/chapter-11/) Do you have data to the contrary? Would be curious as to your argument. Tks
here are 2 sources to check
Daniel Charles, Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare. Ecco: 2005.
Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production. MIT: 2001.
As extreme weather is not increasing as per the IPCC while growing seasons increase and crop yields grow (except when purposely decreased as the article states), you are basically wrong about everything.
But that’s your right.
Bravo. On the bright side for Sri Lanka, it has the worlds highest ESG score. We must end this farce: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-raise-your-esg-score
Yes, leading the pack in removal of the human infestation will always garner the highest ESG scores.
I just wish more people could read and think.
I’d call it “The Great Leap Forward to Net-Zero”. Not sure if the resultant famine after Mao’s original campaign were intentional, but this time it certainly is.
Waiting for the upcoming book “Mao’s America”.
“They” think there are 7.5 to 7.9 billion too many people on the planet
It’s not a secret
Another outstanding article. Thank you for bringing up the issue of food for the masses. I read the book, "The Alchemy of Air" which described the Fritz Haber and Carl Bosh invention of reactors to turn the air with natural gas into ammonia and how the head of Royal Society of Scientists in 1900 proclaimed that the planet could not support more than 2 Billion people. Then along comes Haber! I wrote on my blog about the uselessness of the U.N. for world Peace. It seems odd that they (The UN) is more interested in Ruling the World than in stopping wars and feeding the people in Developing countries. http://dickstormprobizblog.org/2022/04/05/energy-world-peace/
Keep up your excellent writings! Dick Storm
Thanks!