Mastodawn

RealGravitas -Citizen Saboteur Jul 10, 2023

@matthewtoad43 @empiricism @godofbiscuits @CelloMomOnCars @hembrow @breadandcircuses The best thing that could happen right now is for petroleum/coal to become suddenly and irreversibly unobtainable. We would be forced into reliance on natural electricity production, ethanol, and animal power. It wouldn’t support 10 billion but it would support 100 million.

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CelloMom On Cars Jul 10, 2023

@CWilbur @[email protected] @empiricism @godofbiscuits @hembrow @breadandcircuses

If #FossilFuels go away:
- 40% of global shipping goes away that now carries oil, coal, n gas.
- 40% of the US corn crop that now goes into car ethanol can be replanted for food. Or rewilded.
- Plants grow better without air pollution
- We'd need only 30% of the primary energy replaced by renewables. Because fossil fuels are that inefficient.

It's still a tough pull, but easier than it looks at first sight

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Michael Robinson Jul 10, 2023

@CelloMomOnCars @CWilbur @matthewtoad43 @empiricism @godofbiscuits @hembrow @breadandcircuses
No fossil fuels, no Haber process.
No Haber process, no fertilizer.
No fertilizer, 1/2 of humans currently alive starve to death.

https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-people-does-synthetic-fertilizer-feed

How many people does synthetic fertilizer feed?

Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems

Our World in Data

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CelloMom On Cars

@michael_robinson @CWilbur @[email protected] @empiricism @godofbiscuits @hembrow @breadandcircuses

It's complicated though, right?
No Haber-Bosch process, no excessive nitrogen runoff, no algal blooms, no depletion of aquifers and dustbowlification of agricultural land. And very probably fewer than 8 billion people here today.

But here we are, all 8 billion of us. Eating less meat helps a lot. Permaculture soil farming. And new nitrogen processes.

https://news.mit.edu/2020/cheaper-fertilizer-production-0504

Technique could enable cheaper fertilizer production

In a step toward small-scale production of ammonia fertilizer, MIT chemical engineers have devised a way to combine hydrogen and nitrogen using an electric current that generates a lithium catalyst.

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology