4 ms·

"Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that

"Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains." - Paul Harvey

digitalsushi 4y ago
and perhaps, that we can literally suck nitrogen out of the air to make the fertilizers that without, we could not have grown to 8 billion people
- throwaway2214 4y ago
  the dutch are closing 3000 farms because of too much nitrogen nothing is as easy as it seems
honkler 4y ago
and modern society owes to dinosaur juice
- efields 4y ago
  More than anything else. If you took oil out of the meta, it’s not like humanity would die off. It’d just be very different. We’d still be thriving. We’d still likely have scientific breakthroughs that increase quality of life. It’d just be so very different.
  - Waterluvian 4y ago
    I don’t think it would be that different. I think the growth curve of our technology and population would have had a longer flat section. Obviously this is a ridiculously complex thing to project, but the reason I’m skeptical is that without fossil fuels, there’s still far more energy available than we need. Perhaps an argument could be made that fossil fuels are a distraction and we would have been naturally forced towards more sustainable options. …or we just get super good at burning trees.
  - pjc50 4y ago
    Overnight? We'd lose a lot of people during the transition war. If you took out natural gas overnight, half of Europe would start freezing to death. I don't think people appreciate how much the 20th century was the oil century.
- cyber_kinetist 4y ago
  By the way, most of the petroleum we use doesn't really come from dinosaurs. The consensus among researchers seem to be that it mainly comes from dead planton and algae that sunk to the bottom, although there are also some heterodox theories of abiotic oil formation as well. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Formation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Formation)
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Not any more, not in America at any rate. Topsoil became irrelevant after ammonia fertilizer. Irrigation is a thing.

"Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a six inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains." - Paul Harvey

digitalsushi 4y ago

and perhaps, that we can literally suck nitrogen out of the air to make the fertilizers that without, we could not have grown to 8 billion people

throwaway2214 4y ago
the dutch are closing 3000 farms because of too much nitrogen nothing is as easy as it seems

honkler 4y ago

and modern society owes to dinosaur juice

efields 4y ago
More than anything else. If you took oil out of the meta, it’s not like humanity would die off. It’d just be very different. We’d still be thriving. We’d still likely have scientific breakthroughs that increase quality of life. It’d just be so very different.
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  I don’t think it would be that different. I think the growth curve of our technology and population would have had a longer flat section. Obviously this is a ridiculously complex thing to project, but the reason I’m skeptical is that without fossil fuels, there’s still far more energy available than we need. Perhaps an argument could be made that fossil fuels are a distraction and we would have been naturally forced towards more sustainable options. …or we just get super good at burning trees.
- pjc50 4y ago
  Overnight? We'd lose a lot of people during the transition war. If you took out natural gas overnight, half of Europe would start freezing to death. I don't think people appreciate how much the 20th century was the oil century.
cyber_kinetist 4y ago
By the way, most of the petroleum we use doesn't really come from dinosaurs. The consensus among researchers seem to be that it mainly comes from dead planton and algae that sunk to the bottom, although there are also some heterodox theories of abiotic oil formation as well. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Formation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Formation)

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Not any more, not in America at any rate. Topsoil became irrelevant after ammonia fertilizer. Irrigation is a thing.