b'Putins Appetite for War Has The World Feeling Pangs of HungerA BUTTERFLY CANflap its wings in Peking, and inGerman chemist Fritz Haber turned his attention Central Park, you get rain instead of sunshine.to this problem in 1904. As he saw it, the solution lay That quote comes from Jeff Goldblum in Jurassicin finding a way to make use of the vast amount of Park as he tries to explain how worldly events can benitrogen available from the atmosphere. Two years interrelated in a complex fashion. We now have justearlier, Carl von Linde had succeeded in liquefying air such a situation with the tragic war in the Ukraine. Itsby first compressing it and letting it expand rapidly, tentacles are reaching all over the world, causing prob- thereby cooling it. The liquid air he obtained was read-lems ranging from the manufacture of silicon chips forily separated into oxygen and nitrogen by distillation. computers to shortages in fertilizer. Russia and UkraineHaber found that if this nitrogen were reacted with are prime producers of fertilizer and a disruption inhydrogen under pressure, ammonia (NH3) formed. production is set to have global consequences.Ammonia gas could be pumped directly into soil as a JOE SCHWARCZ, By the 1800s, scientists had begun to understandfertilizer, or even better, could be converted into water-is director of McGillthe nuances of agriculture. Through photosynthesis,soluble ammonium nitrate by reaction with nitric acid, Universitys Officecarbon dioxide from the air supplied plants with thewhich itself could be made from ammonia. Urea, also for Science andcarbon and oxygen they need for growth. Hydrogen,produced from ammonia, eventually proved to be an Society whichalso required, was available from water. But potas- even more efficient fertilizer than ammonium nitrate. In has the mission ofsium, phosphorous and nitrogen, all essential, had to1909, Haber demonstrated his process to the chemists separating sensebe supplied by the soil. Once the earth was depleted ofat the Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik (BASF), who from nonsense. these minerals, it would become infertile. The situationunder the leadership of Karl Bosch then worked out could be remedied, the minerals replenished, and thethe final details of the industrial large-scale manufac-soil made fertile again by ploughing in manure or plantture of ammonia. wastes. Unfortunately, it was also becoming clear thatToday Ukraine and Russia both have extensive even the most efficient recycling of waste products asfacilities to produce fertilizer for their own use and for fertilizer would not be enough to sustain the grow- export. Besides nitrogen fertilizers that also produce ing population. Supplying nitrogen for crops was apotash, a source of potassium. Interestingly, in this particular problem. This may seem strange since aboutcase Canada may benefit from a reduction of exports 78% of the air is made up of nitrogen. But with thefrom the Ukraine and Russia since the country has a exception of legumes, plants cannot use nitrogen inlarge potash industry. Ukraine and Russia are also huge this elemental form. Legumes have bacteria growingproducers of natural gas (methane) that is needed to on their roots that can convert the gaseous nitrogen ofreact with steam to make the hydrogen required for the air into a usable form. All other crops, though, havethe Haber-Bosch synthesis of ammonia. Ukraines pro-to rely on compounds of nitrogen in the soil.duction of potash and ammonia has been significantly During the 19th century, the major source of nitrogendisrupted by the war and Russias exports have been fertilizer in Europe was guano (bird poop) importedhit by sanctions. As a result, the worlds food supply from South America or some Pacific islands. Still, allis affected. While we may only note this at the cash the bird droppings that Europeans could import wereregister, some areas of the developing world are likely not enough to feed the growing agricultural industry.to experience actual shortages and hunger.Luckily, though, large deposits of sodium nitrate, betterIt is sad and very disturbing to see how the same known as saltpetre, were discovered in the Chileanspecies that has produced Mendels, Newtons, Pasteurs desert. This was an excellent source of nitrogen butand Einsteins, also produces warmongers who care not would not last forever. Many scientists predicted mas- an iota about human life.SWsive starvation when the saltpetre ran out. 96/ SEEDWORLD.COMDECEMBER 2022'