Tag Archives: erosion

Corn for ethanol & soy for biodiesel tremendously destructive

In the news: Cullen A (2024) Corn Belt fertilizer is killing the Gulf of Mexico. Washington Post. About 30 percent of the nitrogen applied for raising corn is lost to water, and much of it right now is draining off … Continue reading

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Soil salinity and erosion

Preface.  Civilizations fail when their soils are ruined or eroded.  One way conquerors made sure that those they enslaved during wars was to salt their land and burn their homes so they had nowhere to escape to. Erosion is an … Continue reading

Posted in Peak Topsoil, Scientists Warnings to Humanity, Soil | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Climate change impacts on agriculture

Preface. There are three articles below on this topic.  Plus these articles in the news: Nakagawa T et al (2021) The spatio-temporal structure of the Lateglacial to early Holocene transition reconstructed from the pollen record of Lake Suigetsu and its … Continue reading

Posted in BioInvasion, Drought & Collapse, Extreme Weather, Food production, Heat, Peak Topsoil, Soil, Water, Where to Be or Not to Be | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Climate change impacts on agriculture

Book review of Dirt: the erosion of civilization

Preface. On average civilizations collapsed after 800 to 2,000 years because they’d destroyed their topsoil, some of it caused by deforestation to grow more food, make metals, ceramics, glass and other objects requiring high heat, which fossils provide today. Today, … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Peak Food, Soil | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

75% of Earth’s land is degraded threatening 3.2 billion people

  Preface. By 2050 95% of Earth’s land could be degraded and reducing or even preventing food production, forcing hundreds of millions to migrate. More than 75% of our planet has been altered by humans, a figure that will likely … Continue reading

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U.S. Industrial farming destroys future food production for centuries

Preface. Below are excerpts from a devastating critique of current farming practices by the National research council who show the myriad ways that industrial farming is harming the land and future food production.

Posted in Air, Biodiversity Loss, Groundwater, Limits To Growth, Peak Food, Pesticides, Planetary Boundaries, Soil, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Peak soil: Industrial agriculture destroys ecosystems and civilizations: Biofuels make it worse

Preface. In 2018 I thought it was time to reorganize this post, as it grew more and more bloated and disorganized with new information. Eventually it turned into my 2021 book Life After Fossil Fuels: A Reality Check on Alternative … Continue reading

Posted in Alternative Energy, Biofuels, Biomass, Energy, Peak Biofuels, Peak Topsoil, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mineral: Soil from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”

FIGURE 1. The state of soil health globally. Preface. Ugo Bardi’s book on minerals covers a wide-ranging territory, including soil, which is a mineral.  In this section of the book he shows how humans have damaged the soil so much … Continue reading

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Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014

Preface.  At last, many years after I first published “Peak soil: Why biofuels destroy ecosystems and civilizations” in 2007, Congress had a hearing to educate House members on why preserving topsoil is so essential for food production for future generations.  … Continue reading

Posted in Biomass, Peak Topsoil, Pesticides, Soil, U.S. Congress Infrastructure, Water Pollution | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Promoting soil health in agriculture at U.S. House hearing 2014

New land converted to cropland to grow biofuel crops equal to 34 coal-fired power plants

Summary of article below: Between 2008 and 2012 over 7 million acres new land, much of it grasslands, were converted to croplands, damaging native ecosystems, and mimics the extreme land-use change that led up to the Dust Bowl in the … Continue reading

Posted in Biofuels | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment