In Blue Machine, I cover how the structure of the ocean helped produce the vast guano reserves near Chile that were extracted by western nations in the mid-1800s. I’m just reading The Devil’s Element by Dan Egan (recommended!), which includes the grim source of phosphate fertiliser before the guano arrived: human bones from the battlefields of Waterloo, Crimea etc. This extraordinary quote by the biologist Liebig describes his fears about the ruined environment this was creating: #science #books