Nearly one-third of the world’s arable land has been lost to erosion or pollution in the last four decades. That comes from a briefing note prepared by the Grantham Centre, entitled — A sustainable model for intensive agriculture. It’s a quick read. The pdf file is only four pages; just two pages of content, plus cover sheet and backgrounder on the Grantham Centre and the paper’s authors. I recommend it.

A couple of observations, off the top of my head:

— The Haber-Bosch process used to produce inorganic nitrogen, consumes 3-5 percent of the world’s natural gas production (as hydrogen feedstock to make NH3), equivalent to 1-2 percent of the world’s annual energy supply. I remember thinking about the Haber-Bosch process while studying thermodynamics, and set the topic aside, but never got back to it. There is clearly an opportunity to develop replacement processes, feasible on an industrial scale, taking advantage of more recent discoveries.

— I once killed the soil around my house, which has exterior log walls, by treating the walls with a fungicide: disodium octaborate tetrahydrate (DOT). Rain caused DOT washoff into the soil, and all the mycorrhizal fungi in the soil died. I ended up with dust, not capable of sustaining life, about 1 meter around the house to a depth of half a meter. That was a lot of wheelbarrows of moving earth! My point is that such an extreme of what-not-to-do, may give some guidance in identifying what-better-to-do.

These are just initial observations. You will probably see more opportunities. The briefing note is full of ideas.

Some links:

http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/ — Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures

http://grantham.sheffield.ac.uk/soil-loss-an-unfolding-global-disaster/ — The page for the briefing note, with link to PDF of the note itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disodium_octaborate_tetrahydrate — Wikipedia re disodium octaborate tetrahydrate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haber_process — Wikipedia re Haber-Bosch process.

Best wishes,
Ken Roberts
03-Dec-2015