Guano is renewable, yes, but it’s also in limited supply. Unlike mining phosphates, which while renewable in geologic periods if not in human scales – but there’re vast amounts of it out there, millennia’s worth.
Sold at a subsidized price of 50 Peruvian soles (£11.6) for a 50kg sack, guano has been snapped up by farmers who cannot afford the rising prices of chemical fertilisers.
“The guano from the islands is good fertiliser and the price is reasonable,” said Segundo Cruz, a farmer in Mala, an agricultural town about 80km south of Lima. But he was concerned that crops take longer to ripen with guano than with the chemical alternative.
“Due to the increase in fertiliser prices, people are no longer sowing the same amount as before, they are planting just a third of the crop, not as much as before,” he told the Guardian. “It won’t be enough to supply the markets, and prices are going to go up even more.”
But we get to that Sri Lankan problem. Organic farming is going to lead to food shortages.
Turnips in the dark again.
Some of these guys are bat-shit crazy.
Guano is pretty good stuff, but like any organic fertiliser it still needs to be broken down in the soil, possibly requiring adaptation of the soil biome, for the actual nutrients to be available for the green stuff you’re trying to grow.
Depending on what you’re starting with, that’s 1-3 growing seasons to get the full effect. Maybe the local growers of green stuff have better estimates.
But replacing direct-feed chemical fertilisers with even the best of organics and expecting the same yields right off the bat?
Insanity.
This was the reason the Germans invented the Haber-Bosch process in the first place. Though in the beginning it was mainly used for munitions.
I would actually argue that ammonia synthesis is renewable. After all the nitrogen goes back into the atmosphere eventually and in the long run the hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water.
As countries around the world wrestle with shortages of imported fertiliser as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The fertiliser sanctioned itself, did it?
500 Soles sounds like a lot for a poor Peruvian farmer chugging along in his 1975 Forc pickup. A cwt of doings won’t go far.
Shirley just like renewables such as the wind and the Sun, it is free ?
Bizarrely I looked at this when I did my degree, but can’t remember anything about it now. In the 19th C the existence of good quality guano was looked on as sufficient reason to annexe a territory. This was especially true on the west coast of Africa. S America was problematic, because the Europeanised populations had just thrown off Spanish colonial rule, so instead Britain ( in particular ) used her economic might to ensure that “conditions” ( ie governments ) were conducive for trade. This was especially true in Argentina and I vaguely recall in Chile too. Conrad’s Nostromo deals with this subject.
Why don’t our Greens go and harvest Guano from the Bass Rock and sell it to their sympathisers. I’d love to see Greens pick-and-shovelling away on winter nights in the Firth of Forth. Bracing! If hungry they can eat gannets.
Otto: Yes, America passed the Guano Islands Act which empowered anybody to annex islands with bird poo.
Bboy – This was the reason the Germans invented the Haber-Bosch process in the first place. Though in the beginning it was mainly used for munitions
Hmm. So if – Jehovah forbid – WW3 breaks out tomorrow (and I’m not reassured by our good friends the Yanks continuing to talk about “tactical” nukes), how long could Germany physically manufacture munitions for the war effort? Given they no longer have enough natural gas to keep factories open now.
Yes, mercifully unlikely we hope, but things aren’t getting less violent and dangerous in Ukraine. Ukraine did a great job of concealing its force buildup until the current offensive – do we know for a fact NATO isn’t doing the same? We know Putin has already raised the stakes by committing an extra 300,000 men, shit could go from bad to wurst quickly.
Buggered if I know, Steve. They could restart the three nukes they’ve just shut down. And try and restart some others.
And dig up all the coal they can, or just buy it from Oz. After all, Haber-Bosch originally ran on coal. But if they were that sensible they’d never have sanctioned Russian gas in the first place.
@Steve.. If things become that bad the peeps in Groningen can complain about minor quakes all they want, but the Slochteren reserve will be switched to full production again then.
And several other gas fields that are now not “ecologically viable”.
If we get the chance at all and don’t perish on an involuntary mushroom diet…
. . . and I’m not reassured by our good friends the Yanks continuing to talk about “tactical” nukes . . .
Seeing as your Russian friends have been literally shouting and ranting about using nukes, a gentle reminder that they’re not alone in that capability is very sensible.
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. . . but things aren’t getting less violent and dangerous in Ukraine.
Not for the Russians, no.
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Ukraine did a great job of concealing its force buildup until the current offensive . . .
They were literally Telegramming it. But superior geniuses preferred to LOL at their primitive propaganda and believe that they couldn’t possibly combat the Russian leviathan.
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. . . do we know for a fact NATO isn’t doing the same?
I would fucking hope they are doing the same. Not much fucking use otherwise, are they?
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– We know Putin has already raised the stakes by committing an extra 300,000 men . . .
Where are all those extra divisions he could supposedly deploy at any time; just snap his fingers and crush “Kiev”? The 300,000 drunken reluctants are going to take a while to whip into shape. What they’ll wear isn’t clear, since the 1.5 million uniforms, including winter wear, the Russian taxpayer thought it had purchased don’t seem to have materialised. As for their arms and equipment . . .
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. . . shit could go from bad to wurst quickly.
Well, that’s what happens when you choose not to take the opportunity to deal with shit when it’s going from bad to worst slowly. But, superior geniuses.
I remain optimistic. It’s clear the Russian armed forces, from the top down, do not want to fight this war. Mostly because they know they can’t, and partly because they know it’s wrong. Putin seems to be intent on making them the scapegoat for the failures, and that’s a very dangerous game for him.
More arms. More sanctions. Keep tipping it in. They’ll fold.
If an engineer could find a way to run the Haber-Bosch process up to the massive temperatures required by burning hydrogen, then that would save a lot of methane for the rest of us. And we’d still get fed.
Alas, I think Hydrogen still too dangerous. Technology though, amazing, something like half the nitrogen in our bodies has come from that clever German pair.
Boganboy – I honestly think the German government would rather Germans die than allow them to burn coal.
Grikath – you’d hope so, but things are already very, very bad in Europe. Their response? Open a luxury cruise ship for “migrants”.
PJF – More arms. More sanctions. Keep tipping it in. They’ll fold.
Ah, the “stick with what we already know doesn’t work” plan.
Yes, I thought you might get excited at Ukraine’s current advance. We are, unfortunately, a very long way away from seeing an end to this war and it may still end in nukes.
It’s not strictly the Haber-Bosch that needs “massive temperatures” it’s the upstream steam reformers (they generate the hydrogen). It’s a zillion years since I was up to date on these things though the Thermodynamics won’t have changed.
Come to think of it, the ammonia synthesis is exothermic and effected at about (beware memory!) 500C. The reforming is endothermic and done at about 900C. The answer is therefore – you guessed it! – a heat pump.
But at last the germ of an idea for a money-spinning Completely Green biz!
Fence off – with 20ft high fences, or higher – somewhere of little value – Ely, say – and cover that with netting!
Voila! A billion-bird guano farm!
Easy money, and completely green!!
Unfortunately, as with all green schemes, there might be one or two trifling details you may have missed…
One being, before bird shit is shit, it has to be bird food. Your covered bird farm might start to run a little short before long.
– Ah, the “stick with what we already know doesn’t work” plan.
That would be appeasement you’re referring to.
The arms and sanctions, even though fairly token so far, are pressuring the Russians pretty well.
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I thought you might get excited at Ukraine’s current advance.
I’m cheered by it, but have no great expectations. The Kherson “offensive” is really defensive. If successful they gain a secure natural boundary the Russians won’t be able to cross again easily. But the Ukrainians can’t go any further from there either, so the Russians can safely move forces east.
In the Donbas, The Ukrainians might fall into the trap of pushing at open doors and waste resources occupying the largely empty terrain of Luhansk Oblast. The only value targets there (in the short to medium) are the Russian supply lines. They should do enough to stop those and no more. Otherwise the Ukrainians get more extended and Russians more concentrated.
Zaporizhzhia Oblast is where an offensive will really pressure the Russians, as Crimea and its land link become vulnerable. If the Ukrainians can break though there and cause another
goodwill gesturewithdrawal to more favourable positionsrout like they have so far, that’ll be a real game changer. But I doubt they have the resources to do it this year.My initial prediction was that Ukraine could contain the invasion on the ground but the powers that be would force a wretched settlement on them (and be grinning and shaking hands at the next climate do). That proved a bit pessimistic, but ultimately I’m still expecting President Biden’s Handlers to stab Ukraine, and Europe, in the back. Because that’s who they are and that’s what they do.
– I honestly think the German government would rather Germans die than allow them to burn coal.
Amid an energy crisis, Germany turns to the world’s dirtiest fossil fuel
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1124448463/germany-coal-energy-crisis
The Greens are being thrown under the bus for the winter. Hopefully the Germans will be shocked enough by all this to make that permanent.
PJF – but ultimately I’m still expecting President Biden’s Handlers to stab Ukraine, and Europe, in the back. Because that’s who they are and that’s what they do.
Well, they already have, by turning it into a money laundering scheme for Septic politicians and their incestuous crackhead spawn (10% for the Big Guy), encouraging them to get into a war with Russia instead of getting along with Russia, and then bombing Europe’s energy infrastructure.
But yeah, I don’t think we can keep funnelling billions of pounds and dollars to Ukraine every month indefinitely. The sanctions were supposed to bring Russia to its knees very quickly, but so far we’re hurting a lot more than they are and Ukraine is hurting most of all.
The UAF is going great guns at the moment, but they’re trading a lot of lives for territory while failing to bring the Russians to battle. That latter bit should set off alarm bells, because you generally win wars by making sure it’s the other guy who dies for his country.
No idea how the 300,000 will shape up, but Putin and the broader Russian government have staked their entire future on the newly annexed regions. They can’t afford not to defend them (or Crimea, which is their most strategically valuable piece of real estate). So they’re unlikely to back down, they’re more likely to finally declare war on Ukraine and start bombing anything that moves.
Similarly, Ukraine can’t back down for as long as it’s dependent on Western backers who insist the war must be won on the battlefield. (And tbf I doubt Ukie public opinion is feeling dovish anyway).
Long story short, this is how we end up with a variety of shite outcomes, ranging from another frozen conflict / Berlin Wall type partition of Europe all the way up to full blown ‘that woman who pissed herself with terror in Threads’. In the meantime, a lost generation in Britain and Europe due to energy prices pricing us out of many of the businesses we used to earn our crust by.
A strange game, the only winning move was to mind our own business and not get involved with Johnny Foreigner’s retarded blood feuds.
“the only winning move was to mind our own business”: for quite a few years the usual British policy towards Continental wars was not to intervene unless there was a risk of a powerful aggressor getting control of the Channel and ‘Narrow Sea’ ports.
It was largely accepted that there wasn’t much to be done about the French controlling their own Channel ports, but you certainly wouldn’t want Kaiser Bill, for instance, controlling both Belgian and French ports. Nor would you want the King of France controlling the ports in the Low Countries. At least, that’s how it seems to me.
Thus the war of 1870 was ignored: HMG must have decided that Bismarck was not after the Channel ports. They were right too.
An exception to this rule of thumb was the Crimean War. In retrospect it made the rule look pretty good.
I can’t help wondering whether arming 300,000 reluctant conscripts is necessarily a good idea.
. . . and then bombing Europe’s energy infrastructure.
Evidence that it’s actually sabotage first, then a whodunit. Until then that’s just shit Steve believes.
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– The sanctions were supposed to bring Russia to its knees very quickly . . .
Er, no. That being the case we would have full on crippled them, instead of pissing about not quite sanctioning Roman Abramovic’s yacht. Soft sanctions were meant to bring them to their senses. They failed. Increase.
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. . . while failing to bring the Russians to battle. That latter bit should set off alarm bells, because you generally win wars by making sure it’s the other guy who dies for his country.
The Russians are abandoning their equipment when running; they’re not retreating in good order. The forces are half destroyed because of that. It’s not about the enemy dying, it’s about them not being able to fight. A bunch of demoralised men being divvied out to other cobbled together units without proper kit is much less of an enemy.
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. . . Putin and the broader Russian government have staked their entire future on the newly annexed regions. They can’t afford not to defend them (or Crimea, which is their most strategically valuable piece of real estate). So they’re unlikely to back down, they’re more likely to finally declare war on Ukraine and start bombing anything that moves.
They’ve tried to up the ante, that’s for sure. But trying isn’t succeeding. It doesn’t look like they’ve kick-started the Great Patriotic War Mark II so far, does it? Putin and his cronies are not Russia. The Russians gave up the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact; those were arguably much more important than Crimea and the Donbas – which, remember, they’ve also already survived giving up. The Russians know losing the conflict at this level isn’t existential, but they know escalating the conflict too far will make it existential. They know they’re fighting with big, wallowing, soggy-cardboard Potemkin armed forces, and they know we’re not. So I don’t think the wider Russian establishment is very keen on this path.
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. . . the only winning move was to mind our own business and not get involved with Johnny Foreigner’s retarded blood feuds.
If Ukraine was situated where Kazakhstan is this wouldn’t be happening. But it isn’t, it’s in our direction. Sucks, but there it is.
. . . but things aren’t getting less violent and dangerous in Ukraine.
Not for the Russians, no.
Indeed.
https://twitter.com/blackscholescat/status/1577391664603316224?s=20&t=4HRrUCRgeP_I_QwCt66nWQ
And it looks like the hot line for Russians to surrender has been very busy:
Note that prearranged surrenders are something that happen relatively often – the Ukrainian government has a special hotline Russian soldiers can call to arrange their surrender – and there is a bounty for turning over intact armoured vehicles.
https://twitter.com/JimmySecUK/status/1577719864394846208?s=20&t=4HRrUCRgeP_I_QwCt66nWQ
from the linked article in the Tweet:
As to Putin resorting to nukes …
Gen (Retd) H.R. McMaster on The Goodfellows podcast recently said he’d been told by a very senior member of the current administration that Putin had been told via back channels exactly what would happen if he resorted to nukes, although McMaster wasn’t told what it was.
Given that both retired Generals Dannatt and Petraeus have both said something similar in the past couple of days:
I think we can assume they’ve been briefed, as plausible but deniable, to remind Putin what will happen should he use nukes of any description: ie the complete destruction, by conventional means of his forces in the region.
And quite rightly so, we can’t have every tin pot dictator thinking that the west will cave to nuclear blackmail.
Putin is one of the great political operators, so spaketh St Nigel of the Wold of Farage. Don’t have to like him but this claim he’s made on all of the 4 oblasts means that when the truce negotiations arrive in the winter he can claim he’s giving up something when he only gets half of Zap, Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk.
And Ukraine gets something as their troops stop dying and the Russians have to pay to rebuild Mariupol and the other settlements. It’s the ideal Monty Python tax win where foreign pays for something you want done.
Yet still some pundits whine on about Crimea being Ukrainian despite Ukraine having spent 8 years treating the residents there like they’re not, wanting to variously stop the water, concerts, films, tv and school choice in language education for people they claim to be of their own ilk. Not a great set of principles for establishing sovereignty imv.
Of course the people of Crimea don’t want to be part of Ukraine and remain part of Russia, their commitment to joining the Russian army and fighting against Ukraine to protect their freedom.
And of course the rigged independence in ‘91 vote was a dead giveaway.
– Don’t have to like him but this claim he’s made on all of the 4 oblasts means that when the truce negotiations arrive in the winter he can claim he’s giving up something when he only gets half of Zap, Kherson, Donetsk and Lugansk.
That would be interesting to watch, since it is against the Russian Constitution for anyone, including Putin, to give up in any manner Russian territory to a foreign power. This was an amendment made by the great political operator himself a couple of years ago. He can’t negotiate away that which he and his puppet Duma has made Russian. Try again.
– Yet still some pundits whine on about Crimea being Ukrainian . . .
Crimea is Ukrainian by whiny international law and treaty. Russia currently illegally occupies it by force of might. We’ll see if they can hold it.
How come Masanobu Fukuoka was able to produce 1200 pounds of rice on a quarter acre without using pesticides, tractors, or irrigation?
It should also be noted that when asked about independence in a referendum that wasn’t carried out at the end of a rifle 54% in Crimea said yes, and that was the lowest. Kherson was 90%.
It should also be noted that when asked about independence in a referendum that wasn’t carried out at the end of a rifle 54% in Crimea said yes, and that was the lowest. Kherson was 90%.
To be clear, Bloke in North Dorset is talking about a referendum on Ukrainian independence from Russia.