Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Theamountofcropswecangrowtodayisanutterly“unnatural”phenomenon—thatis,itiswaybeyond
the natural capacity of the nutrients in land to nourish crops in one season, let alone season after season.
One solution to the problem of fertilizing was manure or some other organic fertilizer, which increased the
amount of nitrogen plants could absorb and thus the amount of them that could grow. The use of such fer-
tilizer allowed population growth and living standards to rise throughout the nineteenth century. But there
was a problem; as population grew, it was harder to find enough manure to collect. The supplies of guano
off the coasts of South America and South Africa were being exhausted, which caused eminent chemist
William Crookes to declare in 1898 that “all civilisations stand in deadly peril of not having enough to
eat.” 27
The solution was Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch's process of making large quantities of synthetic nitrogen
fertilizer using enormous amounts of methane—the predominant component of natural gas. 28
Anotherexample:Electricity-based (usuallycoal-based)ordiesel-based irrigation increasestheamount
andreliabilityofwatergoingtocrops.Irrigatedlandsaveragemorethan three times thecropyieldsofrain-
fed areas. Sometimes irrigation occurs via gravity, but when it doesn't, it takes a lot of energy—usually
fossil fuel energy—to move the water. 29
Finally, the achievements of Norman Borlaug and other great food scientists, often called the green re-
volution (not related to the modern Green movement), were possible only because of the time created by
fossil-fueled civilization to engage in intensive research, because high-powered machines have made it
unnecessary for all of us to do physical labor.
Fossil fuel energy is the food of food.
It is an undeniable truth that, in providing the fuel that makes modern, industrialized, globalized, fer-
tilized agriculture possible, the oil industry has sustained and improved billions and billions of lives. If
we rate achievements by their contribution to human well-being, surely this must rank as one of the great
achievements of our time, and when we consider the problems with that industry, shouldn't we take into
account that it fed and feeds the world? And yet have you ever—and I mean ever—heard any major public
or private figure give the oil industry credit for it? I see Bono and other celebrity activists get credit for
caring but not the oil and energy industries for doing .
MORE FOSSIL FUELS, MORE ABILITY
Without the energy industry, the agricultural industry would not exist; the world could not support a popu-
lation of 7 billion or 3.6 billion and perhaps not even 1 billion. To starve our machines of energy would be
to starve ourselves.
What is true of agriculture is true of every industry. The energy industry has a special place in human
productivity, prosperity, and progress. As the industry that powers every other industry, it can be con-
sidered the master industry . Whether we are talking about the computer industry, the electronics industry,
the health-care industry, or the pharmaceutical industry, every industry uses machines, uses resources that
are manufactured using energy, and uses time that is available because of our high-energy society's pro-
ductivity.Thelessenergywehave,thefewermachinesanindustrycanuse,thefewerresourcesanindustry
has, and the less time it has. And what happens to industry happens to the rest of life. The less productive
industry is, the less time, resources, and machinery we have to enjoy our lives.
 
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