Conserving our P

[Ray Moscow]

Phosphorus, that is.

Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-crisis&sc=DD_20090603)

I suppose we'll be OK if we collect all our (phosphorus-rich) urine, but let's hope there's another solution.

[David B]

Yet more evidence against those who blithely maintain that increasing population is not a problem.

David

[Worldtraveller]

Soylent green is the answer! :D

[Ray Moscow]

I remember a couple of passages in Brave New World about recovering phosphorus from human corpses, like this one from chapter 5 (http://www.huxley.net/bnw/five.html):

"Why do the smoke-stacks have those things like balconies around them?" enquired Lenina.

"Phosphorus recovery," explained Henry telegraphically. "On their way up the chimney the gases go through four separate treatments. P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated some one. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it. More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse. Which makes the best part of four hundred tons of phosphorus every year from England alone." Henry spoke with a happy pride, rejoicing whole-heartedly in the achievement, as though it had been his own. "Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow."