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A population without the Haber-Bosch process would be much smaller.

• hnthrowaway0315 2y ago
  Yeah there are so many key knowledge that ordinary people just take for granted. But that's how we built up modern industries throughout the centuries. I guess it is not realistic to ask for one generation to rebuild everything, and that's why I think we really need a lot of those "knowledge" and "tools" storage. I know many countries have such storage for wars, but are they accessible to ordinary people in case most of the population is wiped out?
  • analog31 2y ago
    Not just knowledge, but the Haber Process is part of a complex machine that involves mining and transporting the feedstock (methane), distributing and applying the product (ammonia), etc. Economic infrastructure (dollar, euro, etc). Nobody knows how to build a major government money system from scratch. We've turned the Earth into a complex and delicate machine for sustaining human life. We don't know how complex or delicate.
• smallmancontrov 2y ago
  So the population is smaller for a while and then it gets bigger. What of it? Unthinkable suffering, yes, but that wasn't the claim, the claim was about capability.
  • analog31 2y ago
    Obligatory Dr. Strangelove quote: Mr. President, I'm not saying we wouldn't get our hair mussed. But I do say... no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops.
  • dredmorbius 2y ago
    If you cannot provide modern fertiliser equivalents, your population will get smaller, yes. It won't get appreciably larger because of that first problem.