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You know what else isn't likely to cause human extinction? Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels. Yet, for some reason, when this is brought up the same people a
by yongjik 10y ago
You know what else isn't likely to cause human extinction? Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels.
Yet, for some reason, when this is brought up the same people are suddenly very, very hostile to any kind of change.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago"You know what else isn't likely to cause human extinction? Weaning ourselves off fossil fuels." You might want to look into where the fertilizer that grows the world's food crops comes from, and exactly how that food gets distributed around the globe. Extinction? Probably not. Mass deaths? Yeah, that would be very likely. Caveat: assuming that the fossil fuels aren't replaced with nuclear power, but in general those who hate fossil fuels are even more vehemently opposed to nukes.
- yongjik 10y agoYour example, not mine, was "Corn Belt moves up into, say, Saskatchewan." You're cool with entire Illinois becoming unarable, but you're worried about fertilizer? At least you seem to agree that "humanity not going extinct" is a patently silly standard to compare anything against. Well, that's a progress.
- Turing_Machine 10y agoNo one said anything about "Illinois becoming unarable". If the Corn Belt moves up into Saskatchewan, Illinois would probably switch to producing rice, cotton, sugar cane, citrus fruit, or some other warm-weather crop. What's patently silly is your idea that farmers are too stupid to switch to crops suited for the local climate.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- rwallace 10y agoFertilizer production is an ideal match for solar power because it's not time sensitive; it can happen when the sun is shining. Or put another way, producing energy-intensive stuff like fertilizer is one way to solve the problem of storing solar energy.
- analog31 10y agoFossil fuel is not just an energy source. The Haber process requires a chemical feedstock -- nitrogen gas and methane, as I understand it. I don't know if anybody has found a pathway for making ammonia from e.g., the hydrogen in water, that's even remotely efficient.
- pyridine 10y agoI found this tidbit interesting from the Haber process wiki page: "Nearly 80% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber-Bosch process" and yet only "3–5% of the world's natural gas production is consumed in the Haber process"
- Turing_Machine 10y agoGreat. Set up a solar-powered fertilizer plant and put the nasty petrochemical-based ones out of business. Talk is cheap. Results matter. Especially when you're talking about the food supply for billions of people.