Hello VtPeaknik,

Just as FF-compnies are now curtailing new projects, I would be expecting eventually for the same to occur for I-NPK companies-- thus, at some point, I would also expect Peak I-NPK to occur. Obviously, O-NPK will then start ramping faster: we will again recycle human bones, by the untold billions, in a repeat of the earlier days of scavenging the battlefields and graveyards, then dead-heading this O-NPK home.

Since there are No Substitutes for the Elements NPK for leveraging photosynthesis above a Liebig Minimum: we can always cost-justify using depleting FF-energy for running wood chippers and grinding mills to reduce these 'immigrants' to powder for the final application to the desired topsoil square foot. Let's hope that the desperation for NPK doesn't impell some to inject still-living immigrants into the wood-chippers' powerful impellers.

My recent posting that pointed towards possible plateauing of I-NPK vs the rosy trendline projections for 2015 & 2030 is thus worthy of closer scrutiny, especially as the US becomes increasingly reliant upon I-NPK imports. Recall that I-NPK is nothing more than 'transformed energy' suitable for topsoil, but bereft of the benefits of O-NPK for better microbial life and water-retention.

In my 'wild & crazy' imagination: I sometimes picture NYC nearly totally abandoned by humans, but re-inhabited by untold billions of birds and bats roosting in the ruins. These species would be creating naturally-superphosphated guano in far greater quantities than the remaining I-NPK facilities. Their 'footprint' would also be magnitudes less than the 'ecological footprint' of the remaining I-NPK mines and factories.

Picture Wall Street transformed from a pointless center of finance to a real asset as a biophysical center for harvesting O-NPK guano. Will a future Wall Street tycoon be a bat & bird biologist? Please consider that as you hug your bag of NPK today.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?