In 1898, William Crookes announced that there was an impending crisis which required urgent scientific attention. The problem was that crops deplete Nitrogen from the soil. This can be remedied by using fertilizers, however, he had calculated that existing sources of fertilizers (mainly imported from South America) could not keep up with expected population growth, leading to mass starvation, estimated to occur around 1930-1940. His proposal was that we could entirely circumvent the issue by finding a way to convert some of our mostly Nitrogen atmosphere into a form that plants could absorb.
About 10 years later, in 1909, Franz Haber discovered such a process. Just a year later, Carl Bosch figured out how to industrialize the process. They both were awarded Nobel prizes for their achievement. Our current population levels are sustained by the Haber-Bosch process.
The problem with that is that the Nitrogen does not go back into the atmosphere. It goes into the oceans and the resulting problems have been called a stronger violation of planetary boundaries then CO2 pollution.
The Averted Famine
In 1898, William Crookes announced that there was an impending crisis which required urgent scientific attention. The problem was that crops deplete Nitrogen from the soil. This can be remedied by using fertilizers, however, he had calculated that existing sources of fertilizers (mainly imported from South America) could not keep up with expected population growth, leading to mass starvation, estimated to occur around 1930-1940. His proposal was that we could entirely circumvent the issue by finding a way to convert some of our mostly Nitrogen atmosphere into a form that plants could absorb.
About 10 years later, in 1909, Franz Haber discovered such a process. Just a year later, Carl Bosch figured out how to industrialize the process. They both were awarded Nobel prizes for their achievement. Our current population levels are sustained by the Haber-Bosch process.
full story here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GDT6tKH5ajphXHGny/turning-air-into-bread
The problem with that is that the Nitrogen does not go back into the atmosphere. It goes into the oceans and the resulting problems have been called a stronger violation of planetary boundaries then CO2 pollution.