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Let's Talk About Fertilizer (paulkrugman.substack.com)

submitted 1 month ago by btaf45@midwest.social to c/usa@midwest.social

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A lot of the world’s fertilizer turns out to come from that area and normally get shipped through the strait. And the United States, we’re a great agricultural nation, and we do import significant amounts of fertilizer. We import a large share of our fertilizer, and some of it from the Persian Gulf, a significant share of that.

So this is having a direct impact on U.S. farmers.

Most people in the United States are significantly adversely affected by the spillover from this war. Now, oil companies, particularly oil refiners, who seem to be seeing a big explosion in their margins, they’re doing well, but what good does that do the rest of us? It’s not as if the U.S. has any fiscal measures in place to capture those gains. So this is in fact, this is hitting the United States, it’s hitting all of us quite hard, and it may be actually kind of catastrophic because plans, plans to travel, never mind, but plans to plant crops may be seriously endangered by all of this.

Has anybody told Trump about this? From everything we’re reading, the answer is probably not. Basically, we’re in a situation where the courtiers don’t tell the emperor that he has no clothes and don’t tell him that actually war in the Persian Gulf really hurts the United States a lot, too. So, you know, God knows.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

There's multiple types of "fertilizer".

Ammonia is made using liquid natural gas.

Potash and Potassium are both mined, we break up rocks that have held the good stuff for millenia or far longer.

There's a shit ton of environmental concerns with the mining, then the fossil fuel usage to move it around, then the fact almost no one reclaims it so we're dumping it all in the ocean where it fucks up that ecosystem.

But most importantly the ecosystem is adapting to that constant and steady supply, even tho eventually it's going to stop. Either because we finally wise up, or something like WW3 happens and disrupts global shipping.

Like, pretty sure China controls the potassium supply these days, most countries like England burned thru their supply already.

You think Iran cutting off oil is bad? Wait till China decides their potassium is best used in China.

We can live without oil, if the planet has to live without fertilizer most complicated life forms (human and otherwise) won't be on it.