1/5 of raw fertilizer materials come from Russia! Is there a reason Russia is so prolific a source of fertilizer? I assume it's a legacy of Soviet Union attitudes towards raw material production.
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US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
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Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#62Meanwhile RUB to USD is at its highest in nearly 5 years. Cutting Russia off from SWIFT has only strengthened their ties to India and China. Russia is still invading Ukraine, and now we're dealing with soaring food and energy prices at home. At some point you have to consider whether this level of diplomatic incompetence is intentional.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah and Russia could have ended the war by now too by simply launching their nukes. I think it's weird you don't think anyone involved in the problem has thought of your proposed solution, or that you don't think there's any potential negative effects from antagonizing an unhinged despot with his finger on the nuke.
Ah the classic "don't rattle Putin or nuclear war" defense.
What kind of moronic dismissal is that? Avoiding nuclear war should be our #1 priority.
"Oh those stupid idiots are scared of nuclear war"
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#64The West could've ended this war by now if they just went all in on sending howitzers, MLRS and other heavy equipment into Ukraine but they keep slow dripping it, or just doing nothing like Germany. The most powerful societies in the world history just twiddle their thumbs while negative consequences keep mounting.
Yeah and Russia could have ended the war by now too by simply launching their nukes. I think it's weird you don't think anyone involved in the problem has thought of your proposed solution, or that you don't think there's any potential negative effects from antagonizing an unhinged despot with his finger on the nuke.
He's not unhinged, he's essentially a boss of a drug cartel, flaunting his strength and cruelty but respecting the power of others. There is no real value for him to launch nukes unless he thinks the West is absolutely weak and I'm afraid that conviction is actually growing.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
As I understand it, the hydrogen in most industrially produced fertilizer comes from petroleum products. Given that, Russia being a big producer of fertilizer makes sense.
In the article though, they make it clear the 3 resources they are talking about are nitrogen, potash, and phosphate.
Nitrogen fertilizer is what I was talking about. Atmospheric nitrogen is combined with hydrogen from natural gas.
I can't really say why Russia would also be a large supplier of potash and phosphate, except to guess that they wanted to cover all of the relevant bases in a market in which they were a big player.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have to understand the utter diplomatic and geopolitical incompetence of the current US adminsitration. You're talking about the same administration that literally admitted in the open to be executing cyber attacks on Russia[1]. The fact that they haven't made most of North America glow in the dark is an utter miracle. And to make my point clear, the issue isn't that they're conducting cyber attacks - that's a gi…
And yet, we're not glowing. That's because cyber attacks are not viewed the same as physical attacks, especially when it doesn't lead to loss of life. This is literally the US AND Russia's stance, so it's not a completely untoward thing to do. I'm not in support of it, but, that's the reality
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Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#67The West could've ended this war by now if they just went all in on sending howitzers, MLRS and other heavy equipment into Ukraine but they keep slow dripping it, or just doing nothing like Germany. The most powerful societies in the world history just twiddle their thumbs while negative consequences keep mounting.
You're literally asking for more death and destruction. Just think of what you're saying. Russia wins this war no matter what and the pointless cheerleading from the media and some politicians has been nothing but disposing of Ukrainian lives for the sole purpose of getting some type of bizarre revenge on Russia who they believe got Trump elected, or something.
Sending more and more weapons only prolongs it and adds to the body count. A humanitarian mission to remove those at risk from the areas Russia wants to invade would be a far better response. Sanctioning Russia is fine but shooting ourselves in the foot by refusing to buy their fuel is ridiculous and destroying our economies leading to real people losing their livelihoods here.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#68What happened to all the people pushing organic fertilizers? Why don't they source more of that?
Because, as we have seen here, most of the green solutions to our industrial problems are not really viable at scale at the present moment. If they were this war would have been trivially ended since Russia would have no power over the developed world.
This war is a perfect object lesson in exactly how dependent we are globally on fossil fuels. That we are more decades than we have left away from solving our hydrocarbon problem. And that if we do happen to cross peak oil in a few years (which will actually be good for climate change) the result won't be a transition to green energy but global war on an unprecedented scale.
People paying close attention have been pointing this out for decades but dismissed as "pessimists" by green idealists.
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really don't get it - the west must a) either know more about Russia and its plans than the public or b) are somewhat complicit in gaining from a long war.
> west must a) either know more about Russia and its plans than the public or b) are somewhat complicit in gaining from a long war. Or didn't know what was going on until well after the war was underway. U.S. tactical intelligence has no match on earth. American strategic intelligence is almost predictably garbage. From Iraq to Kabul to Kyiv, we've consistently called the shots wrong.
Many would argue that US tactical intelligence is overrated, as well. When's the last time the US fought against a near-peer?
Re: US quietly urges more use of Russia fertilizer to ease food crisis
#70[deleted]