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4 Jul, 4 tweets, 3 min read
We aren't made of stars as much as we are made of fossil-fueled fired Nitrogen fertilizers!

No Haber-bosch, no population boom & ironically no mass bombing in WW1/2 (fertilizers, bombs are both nitrogen-based. H-B first used to make explosives, per Smil) nature.com/articles/22672
2/ "What is the most important invention of the twentieth century? Aeroplanes, nuclear energy, space flight, television and computers will be the most common answers. Yet none of these can match the synthesis of ammonia from its elements"
Smil on NITROGEN
vaclavsmil.com/wp-content/upl… Image
3/ Agricultural yields are proportional to use of Nitrogen fertilizers. Making Nitrogen via Haber-bosch's fossil fueled process was key to 20thC population boom.

1 in 2 ppl alive on planet today wouldn't be here without Haber-Bosch
nature.com/articles/ngeo3…
pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9ef1/254c1b762… ImageImage
Cheap oil led to three substitutions:
1. Nitrogen-fixing legumes w/ fertilizers
2. Ppl w/ machines
3. Food w/ animal feed
Thread on combined and uneven development of Industrial Agriculture & changing its fossil fuel dependence. Image

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More from @70sBachchan

Albert Pinto Profile picture
5 Jul
Historic verdict: US-trained former Honduran army intelligence officer who was the president of an internationally-financed hydroelectric company has been found guilty over the assassination of the indigenous environmentalist Berta Cáceres. theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…
2/ Lawyers: "murder was the grand finale in a campaign of terror carried out by a wider criminal structure including company executives & state officials against Cáceres & her organization Copinh (Council of Popular & Indigenous Organizations of Honduras)" theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…
3/“Their audacity, determination & dignity to resist, defend and triumph over this corrupt system sets a precedent. We have nothing to thank the justice system for. It was they who persecuted Berta; they criminalized her & displaced her. This victory is a result of our militancy” Image
Read 4 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
6 May
61/ German firms are central to China's industry (steel, cars, BASF chemicals etc) and to Green industry (technology transfer of solar; Siemens with trains & electric grid etc).

US, China & Germany have complementary capabilities in green tech & should cooperate in scaling up. Image
62/ Forget Competitive Advantage. 'Collaborative Advantage', @jonasnahm s new book!
global.oup.com/academic/produ…

21stC needs countries to work together to design, manufacture, & scale-up tech rapidly. Corona vaccines an eg. of things to come.
63/ US Koch brothers have veto on Climate action; China has not 1 but a "100 Koch Brothers" problem of entrenched heavy industry interests in a dozen provinces. Xi's crackdown on domestic Coal is going to be long drawn out & bureaucratic infighting vicious wsj.com/articles/china…
Read 5 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
3 Mar
National Security Council for AI (chaired by Google's Schmidt) issues 750-pg report proposing “US & its allies should utilize targeted export controls on high-end semiconductor manufa equipmen...to protect existing technical advantages & slow [China]" reports.nscai.gov/final-report/t…
2/ Ex Google CEO Schmidt made it plain in 2010s that he intends to marry Silicon Valley giants to the Pentagon. His pitch: thanks for starting Computers in 1940s but your software & weapons are stuck in 1980s
Military Industrial complex contracts,ka-ching! nytimes.com/2020/05/02/tec…
3/ And to Silicon Valley, Google's Schmidt has made the pitch that the digital world is decoupling (and China will never let you into the walled garden, trust us, we tried & failed) and you have to turn into patriotic National Giants to help contain China nytimes.com/2020/02/27/opi…
Read 13 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
13 Jan
There's a 1970s style energy crisis playing out in Japan, Korea & China with hardly any attention from rest of the world. Gas & coal supply shortages, spikes in demand from harsh winter & rationing...but there are deeper roots. @JKempEnergy sets out analytical framework.
2/ Mindblowing that one reason energy use & prices are spiking in E Asia is Covid Ventilation. Offices, homes etc opening windows to prevent buildup of virus aerosols while also blasting heat during freezing winter. Thread on crisis japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/12/2…
3/ My kingdom for an LNG tanker. An unprecedented shortage of liquefied natural gas tankers has made them the most expensive ships ever hired to ferry commodities. Excellent reporting on E Asian energy crisis by @SStapczynski @a_shiryaevskaya bloomberg.com/news/articles/… Image
Read 17 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
25 Dec 20
Between the pandemic & california mega fires & american dysfunction 2020 has been Mike Davis' cassandraesque year. But every time you think he's hit Peak Bleak, turns out he's still climbing... substack.sashafrerejones.com/p/friday-decem…
thankfully mike davis was completely wrong about the uneven burden of Covid. It hit poor countries of the subcontinent & africa much less than richer europe & americas.
Terrible as covid-19 is, a reminder that it could have been deadlier. Spanish flu killed the young more than the old. 60% of global mortality, some 20 million of 1918-19's toll was in India. Industrial Agriculture & inequality as Mike Davis warns will eventually produce a monster
Read 7 tweets
Albert Pinto Profile picture
25 Nov 20
28/ Bluntly: You either get a Cold War with China or you get Climate action. You can't get both.

John Kerry has his work cut out. Briefs on greening US-China relations @njtmulder @DebSeligsohn @kellysgallagher #GeopoliticsOfGHGs quincyinst.org/symposium/gree…
29/ China's oil company CNOOC on Pentagon blacklist for its offshore exploration in South China Sea & US desire to counter mil-industrial complex. US investors hold ~15% of shares given year to divest. Its global partners inc Exxon/Total #GeopoliticsOfGHGs defense.gov/Newsroom/Relea…
30/ 190 of 197 nations ratified 2015 Paris Agreement. Wall Street & China want to limit warming. Yes, there is powerful opposition,& escapist elites but is Climate politics Existential?
@adam_tooze on squaring the circle & #GeopoliticsOfGHGs of past 30yrs e-flux.com/journal/114/36… Image
Read 10 tweets

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