Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Continent of Gigantic Problemsfound that global production of phosphates had already peaked in 1989. Maybe historianswill remember “annus mirabilis 1989” for entirely different reason than the one it is memorablefor in Central and Eastern Europe. The graph below shows that since 2000, producershave again managed to increase their production and in 2010 phosphate productionreached levels comparable to 1989. The continued decline of mining in the United Stateshowever suggests that the logic of “peak” applies to phosphate production as it does to oil.Given the significant growth of the population in the world, it is clear that current productionof phosphates per person is significantly lower than it was during the first peak in 1989.World productionWorld production of phosphatemetric tonsUS production1.5e+08adjusted price1.0e+085.0e+07missing data0.0e+00Year1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000Data: USGS Data Series 140 Graphic: mazamascience.comDevelopment of the global (light gray) and U.S. (dark gray) phosphate production from 1900 to 2010and the development of prices (green curve). The graph shows that the producers were able to respond tofour-fold growth in prices by increasing production. Source: http://mazamascience.com/Minerals/USGS/Why are phosphates so important? Phosphorus is an essential biogenic element. It is, forinstance, an essential part of the structure of DNA and RNA, in which genetic informationis stored in all organisms or part of adenosine triphosphate, a key component of cell energymetabolism. All plants, animals and humans need it to build their bodies. Plants acquirephosphorus from soil minerals. There is however a limited amount of phosphorus in the soil,so farmers must keep adding it to the soil—along with nitrogen and potassium—in the formof fertilizers. Alongside the expansion of irrigation, a massive—ten-fold—increase in theglobal use of mineral fertilizers was another key factor in the green revolution. Phosphatesare a basic raw material for the production of phosphate fertilizers. While nitrogen is richlyrepresented in the atmosphere and some plants species can extract it from the air and storeit in the soil, with phosphorus there is no other option but to add it through fertilizers.This merciless equation therefore applies: no phosphate = no food. Less phosphorus == less food.103