Tuesday
Feb162016
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Flogging the phosphorus horse
Over at the Conversation, a couple of academics are trying on the whole "we're going to run out of phosphorus" malarkey again.
How the great phosphorus shortage could leave us short of food
This has been so thoroughly debunked so often that you'd think that nobody would want to risk it again, but it seems there is no limit to the foolishness of the eco-academic.
I think what they are actually trying to say is that they have invented a process to recycle a mineral. Unfortunately that mineral is cheap and abundant and nobody is interested in their work. But they'd quite like someone to invest in it anyway.
What a way to spend your life.
Reader Comments (25)
Running short on Phosphorus
Bad news for the Crystal Meth industry
Defiantly won't be another series of Breaking Bad then
Well I might as well try it on too.
We are going to run out of water !!!!!
Opps even one that stupid has already been done
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140729093112.htm
The Conversation manages to out-Guardian The Guardian.
When The Conversation started I didn't expect much - I haven't been disappointed. - It's toe curling third rate rubbish...
Toe-curling, pretentious, third rate rubbish, surely?
Oswald Thake
I could pig out on a thesaurus sourced list of insults - it is really awful stuff.
The real irritant is that it's sanctimoniousness and towering self regard and ignorance rest on lavish public funding
Andrew left this comment on the article:
Here is the authors response:
He hasn't a clue what "resource" means. He seems to think it means re-use.
It gets worse.
The co-author of the piece lists her area of expertise as:
An expert in material scarcity who doesn't know the difference between reserves and resources.
@ TerryS
Perhaps the authors think that "resource" means "re-source" and that it is the noun corresponding to the verbs "re-use" and "re-cycle."
Wood ash:- Calcium is the most abundant element in wood ash and gives the ash properties that are similar to agricultural lime. Ash is also a good source of potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, and aluminum. In terms of commercial fertilizer, average wood ash would probably be about 0-1-3 (N-P-K).
The phosphorus in wood ash comes from the phosphorus the tree extracted from the soil and atmosphere during the its growth cycle.
Is Drax selling wood ash as a green environmentally friendly fertiliser, if not it should be able to sell at a premium.
Decades ago, I recall being asked to write an undergraduate essay on whether we would run out of such minerals. (The lecturer was a bit activist.) I managed to arrive at the definitive answer "No" after less than a day lifting heavy books off the shelves in the library.
In the age of t'internet there is now less excuse for such wilful ignorance amongst the conceited greens. Which leaves their right arms more free for other exercises.
TerryS,
it also says,
I guess that makes her an expert. At what, I'm not sure.
The Malthusian delusion is interesting in its persistence as well as its ability to infect and damage allegedly smart people.
What is meant by "studied Science".
Does it mean you study scientists and what they did or does it mean you actually did some science as in physics/chemistry etc?
I see Timmy has left a comment with a link to his paper "The No Breakfast Fallacy" requesting the authors read chapter 7 "Jeremy Grantham's Interesting Mistake".
He comments to the authors: "I’m sorry but your basic argument is coming from an alarming ignorance".
"The Conversation - Academic rigour, journalistic flair". Oh what a giggle!
Incidentally there is a great thread at Worstall's blog on learning something of economics. The comments are worth reading - Worstall’s Guide To Economics
Peak Green Blob funding is now.
It is scaring some of them grantless. No one else will give a grant.
Probably that means she's done 'Science Studies, Business Studies and Innovation Studies.'
Which equates to applying Critical Theory to Science, Business and Innovation and coming to the conclusion that they're all part of the patriarchal hegemonic conspiracy to keep down minorities.
Naive and ridiculous statement from someone who claims to be intelligent, eductated and worthy of taxpayer funding to undertake useful research.
So yes, if all the power stations were to be shut down tomorrow, there will be an electricty shortage instantly - and your useless work and ramblings would be shut down too
So yes, if all shops were to be shutdown tomorrow,....
So yes, if all [insert service] were to be shutdown tomorrow,....
So yes, if all Universities were to be shut down tomorrow, would anyone notice?
So yes, if all Greens were to be shut down tomorrow, would anyone notice?
Marie Curie Research Fellow? Is this funded by the Hospice & terminal illness care charity?
Lecture by Tim:
Tim Worstall - How economics of rare metals really add up
Tim Worstall brought together rare minerals, bacon and eggs and his own interpretive victory dance in his battle to stop us all worrying about running out of resources, at our June 4 Reg Summer Lecture, and also explained why you'll never find a Ferrari in a scrap yard.
Sandy S, we regularly gather up and burn woody garden debris and spread the resulting ashes around the garden. We get a nice fire, suitable for sipping wine, and happy plants, not to mention less solid waste. And we liberate CO2 to the atmosphere where the biosystem can utilize it
Sorry folks, but wood ash is not a good source of phosphorus. Great for potassium (potash, KCl) but poor for phosphate. The best organic sources for phosphorus are cow/horse manure, blood/bone meal, sewage sludge, or even basic slag.
You laugh at phosphorus shortage but consider running out of eco-academics.
The gates of hell would open.
Aila, we need as many eco-academics as bicycle-riding fish can carry in both arms.
golf charlie:
I nominate that as one of the great comments of the decade.
The so-called "Conversation" is not really a 'giggle'. It claims to provide "academic rigour and journalistic flair", but in reality provides neither. In its charter it claims to be free of political bias, a rule that it breaks on an almost daily basis by seeking out the most rabidly political climate alarmists (Mark Maslin, John Cook, Lewandowsky). It "sexes up" articles by putting words into the academic authors' mouths that they never said. Even Alice Bell has her doubts about it.
And it's funded by UK universities, including mine.
This article is typical. Young, ignorant activists, who as noted several times above don't have a clue what they are talking about, present long-discredited Ehrlichian claims based on their own industry-capitalism-bad political agenda. < /rant >
Geoff Chambers comments valiantly there. I occasionally join in. Brad Keyes has been banned.
This'll do down like a cadmium balloon
http://www.farmingfutures.org.uk/blog/negative-global-phosphorus-budgets-challenge-sustainable-intensification-grasslands