Nitrogen and Civilization

Great social, political, and technical changes of the twentieth century have a common root in the most remarkable development that has affected humans since 1900 the unprecedented mnltiplication of our species. The world s population reached 10 million people by about 3000 b.c., the era just preceding the Old Kingdom s pyramid builders. Then it took it some 2,500 years to surpass 100 million around the time of the Athenian splendor, and the 1 billion mark was reached just a few years after the beginning of the nineteenth century, during the time of the Napoleonic expansion (fig. 10.1). Growth rates for the last two intervals translate, to a mere 0.09% and 0.18% per year, respectively. 

This enormous accomplishment has been made possible only by a combination of many advances, including rapidly rising energy subsidies in farming, the introduction of new crop varieties, and the availability of better pest and weed controls. But neither the mechanization of farming nor better cultivars or new pesticides would have produced today s harvests without a massive increase in the supply of fixed 

Growth of the world s population during the past 10,000 years. 

as with any fundamental change, the abundance of fixed nitrogen has, as reviewed in the preceding chapter, many undesirable consequences. That makes it 

Growth of global population and food harvests during the twentieth century. 

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Throughout history civilization has treasured the rarity and beauty of fancy colored diamonds. The stunning diamond from India known as the Hope Diamond, once a part of many royal inventories, is now the premier attraction of the Smithsonian Institution (see color Fig. 4.3.1). While the size of the diamond at 45.52 carats has certainly contributed to the public s interest in the gem, the intense blue-violet color of the stone is generally considered to be its most captivating feature. First described in the mid 1600s by the French merchant traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier as un beau violet (a beautiful violet), the gem also acquired the title Blue Diamond of the Crown or the Royal French Blue when in possession of King Louis XIV of France. The blue color is attributed to trace amounts of boron in the carbon matrix of the stone. Substitution of carbon atoms by nitrogen leads to yellow diamonds, such as the famous canary yellow 128.51-carat Tiffany diamond. 

Although the process to determine KlA and K is possible with a spread sheet, it is cumbersome for commercial specifications. The guidehne for the testing of commercial aeration devices has been well developed and is generally available (American Society of Civil Engineers, 1992). There is no requirement to measure total dissolved gas pressure or estimate dissolved nitrogen concentration, and an... 

The BCNOs contain elements that are very important to life on Earth, such as oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen. They also include metals that were useful to early civilizations and metalloids that make up the computer chips and high-tech devices of today. 

The fixation of nitrogen is vital to the progress of civilized humanity, and unless we can class it among the certainties to come, the great Caucasian race will cease to be the foremost in the world, and will be squeezed out by the races to whom wheaten bread is not the staff of life. 

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