Geopolitics & Military

Phosphorus matters: soil erosion & contamination

by

…the world reserves of phosphate rocks, which are used for the production of phosphate fertilizers, are declining. They can be depleted even this century. The problem with the lack of phosphate fertilizers does not start, however, when all phosphate rock reserves are gone. It starts as soon as the demand for phosphate fertilizers exceeds the supply of phosphate rocks available for export… And this situation may appear within the next 10-20 years.

…So, what can we do?

Largely about access

by

Abstract: It is sometimes held that U.S. motivations in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, while indeed “largely about oil” (in the well-publicized words of Alan Greenspan), are not (or at least not much) “about access” to the region’s oil per se. This essay critically examines that claim, arguing that the current U.S. resort to force cannot really be understood without regard to the current precariousness of U.S. energy supplies.