Muslims seems to be included in all major conflicts in our global civilization today. At the end of the 1900's there was still some conflicts without islamic involvment (in the Basque Country, Ireland and Sri Lanka). These non-muslim conflicts have now ceased.

   The question is WHY? What is it that causes Muslims to create conflicts?

   An article in SvD Business conveys the following GOOD NEWS

  The number of war and casualties in war has declined remarkably since WW2:

Trade prevents war

   Since 1950, wars between countries have become ever fewer on Earth. The reason, according to a new study, is the growing trade between countries.

   The researchers behind the study, economists Matthew Jackson and Stephen Nei at Stanford University in California, USA, have examined developments in the world after the Napoleonic Wars, i.e. from 1816 onwards.

   They noticed that a dramatic change took place after the Second World War. Since then, the number of independent countries on have earth tripled, but they go less frequently to war with each other. The number of deadly conflicts 1950-2000 was only a tenth as many as during the period 1816-1949.

   The number of people who have died in wars between countries has also dropped dramatically, from a half million in 1950 during the Korean War, to almost none at all in the 2000s. Since 2003, when the US invaded Iraq, there have been practically no wars between States in the world.

   It does not mean that war has ceased in the world. But today almost all the deadly conflicts are civil wars, or civil wars with more or less pronounced foreign interference. The conflict in Syria is a recent example.

   Many people may think that the intervention of Western powers in Libya in 2011 was an outright act of war against the Libyan state, but by definition it was a matter of ongoing civil war. It does not count as a war between countries.

   The question is why the latter wars, the intergovernmental conflicts, have almost disappeared. The answer is maybe not what you would expect. The most important factor, according to the study, was growing international trade.

   Between 1950 and 2012 the export share of national GDP increased from 7 to 25 percent. In addition, the number of trading partners has grown tremendously. The latter is at least as important as the overall level of trade.

   Before WW1, trade was certainly considerable, but the number of trading countries were very small - Europe, the US and some others.

   Today, trade between countries is considerable, and different forms of trade agreements, trade unions and trade alliances have sprung up like mushrooms.

   According to their analysis, countries with extensive trading are closely linked to peaceful relations with its closest allies. They also have been less likely to go to war at all, including those countries that they used to have ideological conflicts with.

   Since 1945, military alliances have been far more lasting, partly an effect of the world after WW2 changing from being multipolar with several different power blocks to be bipolar, with only two major power blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

   This was combined with the nuclear weapons deterrent has had a dampening effect on war. But this is not a sufficient explanation. Without comprehensive trading the postwar period would maybe had turned into a period with many more deadly conflict than has been the case.

Roland Johansson

don't forget to check this program about religion with a sense of humour:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/12/christianity-religion-holy-scriptures.html 

Circular Economy - Debris should not exist

 All people should be able to understand that we live on a planet with limited resources. The amount of raw materials in the crust of our planet is limited. This means that raw materials will become increasingly expensive to mine and eventually "run out". Our wear-and-toss society is not sustainable in the long run.

The linear system of raw materials becoming garbage does not work in the long run.

 Please check the program "Garbage should not exist," where sensible viewpoints on both the problem and various solutions are presented.

 We live in a world of natural resources. In a better world trash should not exist. That's the message Ellen McArthur delivers. Her goal is to drive the transition to a circular economy. She explains how we all would benefit from a global circular economy. The program is in English with Swedish subtitles

 Duration - 10 minutes - Available until Wednesday, March 30. 2016 at:

http://urplay.se/Produkter/190820-UR-Samtiden-EAT-2015-Skrap-borde-inte-finnas

 An interesting background to this could be "The Lightbulb Conspiracy", available on Youtube (presented in English translated into Norwegian text).

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1325909862417987000#editor/target=post;postID=1080143363607046692

 It may also be interesting to check if the article "Phosphorus - a future shortage" in:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/11/debate-on-phosphorus-continues-in.html

 Future shortage of phosphorus means to fertilizers in agriculture will not work, resulting in mass starvation.

Todde

Natural Food

 I have watched quite some programs about the alarming overweight and obesity in the West.

 Some comments on this - based on Dr. Atkins + LCHF + own + others' experiences.

1) First and foremost our bodies need:

a) Protein Acids

b) Fatty acids

c) Vitamins

d) Minerals

2) In addition, the body can absorb the energy from:

     a) Carbohydrates

     b) alcohol

3) a) When the body lacks any of the foods mentioned under 1) it becomes the hungry and wants food.

     b) When the body has burned all alcohol and carbohydrates it starts burning fat. - Once all fat is burned the body starts burning protein.

4) Our culture offers plenty of starchy foods in tempting flavors.

5) We need to avoid/minimize intake of sugar and simple carbs.

6) Our priority should be to first and foremost eat protein.

7) By eating hi-protein you will almost certainly have given the body enough fatty acids.

8) In addition, the body needs exercise.

9) NOTE: Carbohydrates are needed ABSOLUTELY no more than you burn (counting calories).

 Fat people claim in interviews that they have tried all sorts of diets. Then they say the diets did not work. Obviously they have not tried to discipline their eating to proper eating habits.

 Given the wast amount of poor dietary advice given, this is perhaps not surprising. Discipline is the most important key to good results!

 The above is pretty simple to understand. What complicates the matter is that our bodies have different needs and ability to handle improper food intake. Therefore, each individual must teach himself how his/her body works and how best to discipline their foodintake.

 Evidently most diets give good results in the beginning (when the body is taken by surprise). Then the body learns to "manage" the new diet and the bodysystems adapt and strive to return to the state the body was in before the diet. - This is where discipline becomes essential.

 Therefore, the safest method to gain control of body shape (overwheight) is by carefully observing what the body needs for 1) and then using the discipline to take control of the body's food intake.

 NOTE! You know when the body switches from burning carbohydrates to burning fat. You get a little duller and can not be bothered to perform physical work as intensively. NOTE! This is a "good indicator", and it means you are on the right path (to lose weight). NOTE! It is at this point it is very important to restrict eating carbs !!!

 This applies to rectify the cause (too much carbohydrates). Don't try to combat the symptoms! Instead discipline your body to proper eating habits!

 Obese people are at 80% greater risk of dementia. The warning sign is when your ability to think slows down.

 Quote: Epictetus (55-135 e. Kr.): You must treat your human beingness as a deceitful and dangerous enemy.

Todde

Decadence

 The word decadence (wikipedia) means progress toward moral ruin. The Indo-European root words are de- and kad-. The prefix de- has many meanings including towards and from. The root word kad- originally meant sadness or hatred. Therefore, one would be able to say that according to our philosophy of life the word decadence means going to or from lower emotional states. In our Philosophy of Life language we define decadence as "Moving Towards Sloppy Discipline (according to Socrates "towards licentiousness"). 

 Our modern Western civilization, has been on a trend towards a more decadent way of life for quite some time. Materialism is in the forefront. Established science study only those things which can be measured, weighed or registered using physical means. It seems as if money is the key yardstick for success. Duty has been replaced with the demands (of rights), while sexuality gets more and more perverted and degenerates. Spirituality is limited to the activities of "religions with holy sripture" or "new age fuzz". What can not be measured by physical means is regarded as more or less witout value - i.e. such things as friendship, love, liberalism, law, order, rights, responsibilities, freedom, imagination and the upbringing of the next generation. Good education, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion was once essential building blocks of Western democracies. The question is whether these values still get sufficient attention today? Or has political corretness become our new censorship on freedom of expression?

 The advertising industry is flourishing as it teaches how the public can be made to purchase more and more goods and services than is needed to satisfy natural needs. When modern people meet, they often have no time for live communication. Instead they communicate through mobiles or computers.

 As the Roman Empire began to decay and the Emperors offered their subjects "bread and circuses" today's rulers invite the public to varieties of different forms of entertainment, from reality shows to web-browsing and facebook activities. The industries of Pornography outbid each other with porn videos that teach the rising generation brutal raw sex. Online, young people who absolutely have no natural needs to learn about perverted sex, can download whatever catches their attention, without any censorship or age limitation and take advantage of everything offered.

 The vapid, materialistic futility grips the minds of licentious men. Instead of engaging in uplifting, creative activities they become idle spectators or bewildered consumers of software.

 Researcher have discovered that the more our governments takes over responsibility from individuals, the weaker the initiative in our societies.

 The West has never experienced such a long period without war as after WW2. Our material wealth has reached unprecedented heights. Meanwhile, the suicide rate has increased and the use of drugs, happiness pills and medicines are soaring.

 Do check "System failures that threaten the world" (available on youtube at):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amrRxONj3bI  - Time: 1 hr 26 min

 There is a follow-up film to "System" called: "Decadence: The Decline of the Western World". The film describes how lobbyists take over policymaking, banks are printing money that is used for speculation (instead of investment in resources that create useful products). At the same time our students of economics are turned into obedient supporters of free market forces without the knowledge of the historical disasters that were created this way.

 The most important question of our time, might be whether it is possible to reverse the trend. How should we get rid of the lobbyists and exorbitant bonus payments? Philosophy believes that when the idea of fair exchange disappear from trade, ethic goes out. It is easy to note that exorbitant bonuses and high salaries has nothing to do with fair exchange.

 If the greedy bonus directors and finance industry speculators were left alone all by themselves without contact with the rest of humanity and the communities they operate in, they would not enjoy any of the luxury they now can purchase with their greed. If our civilization did not abuse the lifeforms of the planet and the physical resources of mother Earth, it would not be possible for humanity to live in an abundance created by parasitism.

 The modern man lives a life where egoism and selfishness is more important than empathy and consideration. Greed and the statushappiness have corrupted civilization as the contempt for politicians is spreading and admiration for billionaires grows. Politicians often care more about their own interests than the country's. Many ordinary citizens follow their example. By helping to create house- and assetbubbles, they have been able to mortgage properties and use the borrowed money for shopping and consumption. Egoism is spreading and wayward debauchery takes place at the expense of others (in the form of loans that can never be paid back). Instead of seeking meaningful pursuits that benefit the many, rather than the ego they strive more and more to maximize their own income with minimum effort.

 Today's insatiable bonus managers and speculators, who profit from derivatives trading, are establishing a new upper class in our societies. They are above laws and regulations created to make societies function. The gap between the rulers and the ruled has been growing as the monetary system has been relieved from virtually all regulation (this really happened when the last link to gold was broken in 1971 by President Nixon and then when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher freed the banking system from the regulations imposed since the depression of the1930's).

 Today executives in some of Sweden's 50 largest companies earn more than fifty times the salary of a normal industrial workers. Parents who have already paid off the loans on their homes can live lifes in luxury as senior citizens. Most of today's young people can not even dream about such a life (especially not once they turn into senior citizens).

 At the same time the finite resources of our planet are consumed. Even if "peak oil" is pushed a decade into the future by new (environmentally harmful) methods to extract more oil from old oil wells, there are other finite resources that will affect civilization as they peak (such as phosphorus, rare metals, sand that is irregularly shaped, etc.). The explosive population growth exacerbates the problems.

 The "curling method" of upbringing future generations does not bode well for the future. It seems that modern parents have some kind of idea that children are all by themselves going to turn out as well behaved without parents tutoring them. Or that parents can get their children to grow their ablity to take initiatives by organizing their lives through giving them maximum service.

 Studies have shown that the more governments assume responsibility for decisionmaking for their citizens, the poorer the ability of citizens to take initiative. That obviously applies for child-rearing as well. Educating children (or citizen) means that difficult decisions have to be made and responsibility needs to be handed over when the right opportunities arise.

Earning, inheriting and destroying

 Civilizations are undergoing the same processes (Cycle of Action) as anything else. They are born, grow, peak and gradually fade away. The decay progresses at different speeds. A vibrant culture like our modern Western civilization will hardly go under in less than a hundred years.

 The foundation of our modern society was laid when the American colonies revolted against Great Britain in the late 1700s. Unlike the planet's past great civilizations, this current one is global. If that means that the decay will be faster or be more drawn out, we do not know yet. What characterizes a civilization of decadence is greed, corruption, nepotism, sloth, gluttony, pride, etc.

 The foundation of the modern global civilization was created with great effort by industrialization and profitable global trade. Subsequent generations built on the heritage and spread this civilization first to Europe and then to other parts of the world. That is where we find ourselves today. But today it is no longer only the countries in North America or Europe that are doing the arduous work of creating. Instead, countries such as China and India have started to snatch initiative, while the abilty to take initiatives of the youth in the west has been curled away by "well-meaning" parents and authorities.

 Historically, no civilization has succeeded in preventing it's downfall, once it has started in earnest. There is no reason to believe that our modern civilization would be the first exception. But from the ashes of decadent civilizations, new viable civilizations have sometimes been able to rise, when enterprising individuals have been able to organize in time and managed to save parts of the spiritual and material capital of the fading civilization left behind. It may make sense to invest in such a bailout today.

 What more evidence do we have of the spiritual decline of the West?

 We have confused inherited wealth with real (creative) wealth. Inherited wealth has nothing to do with the ablity to know how wealth should be managed.

 We have citizens who in their spiritual distress and their material abundance are not able to create meaningful lives. Citizens engaged in status hunting (as indulgent food and wine connoisseurs, art lovers etc.), gluttony and devour unimportant news from the media.

 In China, people are struggling frantically to build a better future. The Chinese are today in the acquisition face. The Chinese people are rising from the remains of what is left of an ancient civilization. The new China is in the stage of creating a future by growing trade. But China does not share the West's liberal ideas of individual freedom and the rule of law (good and bad). Instead they have a party influenced by ideas of confusianism.

 Perhaps we should learn from Japan. Japan has since 1990 stagnated. Japan has no immigration because the land is already densely populated (in the valleys where you can live). Japanese women give birth to no more than 1.4 children per woman. These two factors have led to a declining population in Japan. With the diminishing populaltion new problems are surfacing.

 In the west women give birth to less than 2.1 children/woman (which is the birth rate necessary for the population not be receed). The West has solved this problem by allowing immigration from countries with birth surpluses (and as a consequent severe overpopulation - especially in future Africa and parts of Asia - read India).

 The loss of initiative and import of labor from countries with a different culture are threats to western ideals of democracy, liberalism and individual rights and freedoms.

 When the Greek people went out in large numbers into the streets or when Occupy Wall Street activists (usually young, unemployed people) gathered to demonstrate in many parts of the world, they admittedly created headlines in the media, but they did not affect the agenda of the new upper class (bonus executives and speculators) in any significant way.

 Our last hope is to the growing global middle class. Can this growing group organize themselves across borders? Can the new middle classes in developing countries somehow learn to cooperate with the dwindling middle classes in the West? If so it could be possible to out of the decadence get a new civilization to rise sometime in the future. But for that to occur, the ability and courage to take the initiative needs to grow.

 (Why not read the book "Foundation Triology" by Isaac Asimov - where you can learn some ideas about the karma of civilisations and empires)

 Quote from history: Socrates (470 - 399 B.C. - from Plato's "Republic"): Today's youth loves luxury, is ill-mannered, despise authority, and shows no respect for their parents. They talk about everything unessential instead of training themselves to become valuable citizens. The children have become little tyrants that require the family to serve them. They do not rise to show respect when older people enter the room. They are insolent toward their parents, prefer to prattle on instead of learning to get along socially. They gobble up goodies, and harass their teachers.

 Hesiod (Greek philosopher around 700 BC): I have no hope for the future of our people, as long as it depends on today's thoughtless youth. Because all our young people are so utterly unconcerned about anything outside of themselves. When I grew up, you had to learn to behave well and show respect for the elderly, while young people today consider themselves to be extremely smart. They just impatiently wait for others to listen to them.

Voltaire (1694-1778): The only thing we learn from history is that mankind never learns from history. However, individuals can learn from history.

Todde 

PS. Question: Could you do anything about this?

Belivers in holy scriptures are really decadent. Check this:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/12/christianity-religion-holy-scriptures.html 

 Socrates on youth:

       “The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

   Check the effort to build a greater civilisation (use google translate) at:

https://www.duga.se/ 

Christianity Religion Holy Scriptures Bible Tora Koran

 The German Philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 -72) was raised a devout christian. As he studied philosophy he came to realize, (quote):

 To Religion only that which is holy is true. To Philosophy only that which is true is holy.

 What you cannot make a joke about is not worth taking seriously.
 George Carlin points, with a strong sense of humor, to some of the holy "bullshit" of religions and holy scriptures (especially the bible and christianity, but it is really true for all religions based on Holy Scriptures).
 Check this on You Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPOfurmrjxo 

and more from George Carlin on "Religion":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tp0UNcjzl8

Also check:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy-sVByUHqE

 and George Carlin on Politics and stupidity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLODGhEyLvk 

http://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2019/06/george-carlinpolitics-stupidity-httpswww.html 

and check the effort to build a better civilisation (use google translate) at:

https://www.duga.se/

Peak phosphorus will result in malnutrition

 Already around the year 2033 the world's production of phosphorus may peak. Then it will decrease, according to Swedish researchers. Lack of phosphorus fertilizers will make food more expensive and less nourishing. It will result in Western Sahara becoming a strong ingredient in world politics.

 The world has become dependent on cheap phosphate ore. This dependency could end in tragedy, according to Jan-Olof Drangert, associate professor of water and sanitation at Linköping University in Sweden. We need to change our habits. If we sit with folded arms, we will suffer malnutrition. It's that simple, he says.

 Phosphorus from mines are included in all types of modern fertilizers. Since World War II cheap phosphorus has fueled the greatest agricultural expansion ever. During the same period, the world population has almost tripled. The mining of phosphate ore has so far been our salvation.

 In addition to phosphorous the most common type of fertilizer also contain nitrogen and potassium. Nitrogen is produced from the air. With large amounts of energy fertilizer plants can transform nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that plants can easily assimilate. Phosphorus and potassium come from mines. The world's supply of potassium will last for hundreds of years. The availability of phosphorus is more limited. In some places deposits are already depleted.

 The small Republic of Nauru in the Pacific thrived on exports of phosphate ore during the last century. For a short period, the country's GDP per capita was the second highest in the world. Nouveau riche Islanders imported sports cars, including a yellow Lamborghini - despite the fact that the road around the island is only twelve miles long. In recent years, exports have plummeted. The easily accessible ore is gone. The country is in deep crisis. Similar scenarios are conceivable in other countries. But opinions differ about when phosphate ore will become scarce. The reserves will last for more than a hundred years, there is no doubt about that, says Michel Prud'homme of the fertilizer industry's international trade association IFA Paris.

 He points out that the increased demand for phosphate will lead to new investment in mining, which in turn leads to increased production. This will cause falling prices of phosphate in 2015, according to Michel Prud'homme, who is responsible for questions of production and international trade at the IFA.

 Jan-Olof Drangert and his colleagues paint a darker picture. They have calculated that the total world production of phosphate ore will peak in the year 2033. Thereafter decreases in ore production will start. Some deposits lie deep under the sea. Others are phosphate poor or mixed with high concentrations of toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and uranium. These gloomy forecasts were based on data collected by the US Geological Survey, USGS, which estimates world reserves of extractable phosphate ore to 16 billion tons. The real figure is probably much higher, says Michel Prud'homme.

 He has started a project to deliver a new estimate of world reserves before this summer. One difficulty is that many mines owned by fertilizer companies, for business reasons are reluctant to tell you how much ore that they have left.

  The phosphorus issue has many similarities with discussion of peak oil - forecast that oil production will reach a peak and then decline. Newly discovered reserves of oil have repeatedly pushed the year of peak oil into the future, and critics say that pessimists underestimate the market's capacity to promote innovations and alternative energy sources. But an important point is different with phosphorus compared to oil.

 The element phosphorus is essential to life. It forms the backbone of DNA. Chemical compounds containing phosphorus operates energy-consuming processes in all living cells and fill a wide range of vital functions. It is absolutely impossible to replace phosphorus with something else, says Dana Cordell. She is researcher at Linköping University and the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. Recently, she presented a thesis about what the lack of phosphorus means for the world's food supply.

 Dana Cordell admits that the exact prognosis of when the production of phosphorus decays may be wrong. Other researchers have previously said that the decline would have started already in 1989. But there seems to have been a temporary slowdown that mainly depended on the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then production of phosphate ore has continued to increase. Peak phosphor will happen in about ten or twenty five years and the underlying problems are the same. We need a dramatic change in the way we handle phosphorus, says Dana Cordell.

 Historically, manure and other organic materials accounted for the largest increment of phosphorus in the fields. In the 1840s came a supplement in the form of guano - droppings from sea birds or cave live bats. The manure was discovered on the islands off Peru. Merchant guano shipped to the Europe assets ran until the late 1800s. Then phosphate ore rose as a seemingly inexhaustible source. Since then, the ore gradually have become increasingly important. Today, farmers spread over six times more phosphate from mines than from the barns on their fields. The mining companies' sales of phosphate have been estimated at tens of billions of dollars per year, and 90 percent goes to the production of food.

 In Europe and North America more than half a century of intensive fertilization has saturated many soils with nutrients. Then small doses sufficient to replace phosphorus are lost with every harvest. Elsewhere, the demand for phosphorus will increase. In 2050 the world will have over two billion more mouths to feed, and large parts of Africa have phosphate poor soils. But the biggest changes will occur in Asia, according to the UN agency for food and agriculture, FAO. This is mainly due to China's and India's growing populations eating more and more meat. Meanwhile, large-scale cultivation of energy crops is growing throughout the world. All this leads to the same conclusion: the demand of fertilizers containing phosphorus and other nutrients will increase significantly in the future.

 Two years ago, the price of phosphorus rose sharply from a relatively stable level. Several factors combined. High oil prices and concerns about climate sparked the cultivation of energy crops. China - the world's largest producer of phosphate ore - imposed high export taxes to protect their access to fertilizer. In addition, the fertilizer industry for several years invested too little in their facilities. Phosphate ore prices have increased by more than 800 per cent in 18 months. Since then prices have started to fall back.

 The bubble resulted in a few articles on phosphorus in the mass media and scientific journals. Arno Rose Marin, a researcher at the Stockholm Environment Institute, believes that the issue deserves far more attention than that. He has long sought to stimulate debate about a looming shortage of phosphorus. It seems as if the United Nations has not understood the problem. This is at least as important as the climate, says Arno Rose Marin.

 Already international conflicts of phosphate ore have started. The known deposits are extremely unevenly distributed. More than three quarters ofthe reserves are located in four countries: Morocco (including Western Sahara), China, Jordan and South Africa. Some of the world's largest deposits are in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony which Morocco has in practice occupied since 1975. - Occupation is very profitable for Morocco, says Erik Hagen, who for many years has been covering the Western Sahara on behalf of the Norwegian organization Norwatch.

 He expects that Morocco will export phosphate rock from Western Sahara at a value of over one billion crowns this year. That is more than ten times what the EU pays Morocco to fish off the northwest coast of Africa. The Swedish government supports the right to self-determination for the west saharians and refers to a report on the violations of human rights published by the Human Rights Watch organisation two years ago. The report states that the Moroccan are secretly abusing and torturing suspected Sahrawi activists, and they end up in prison after unfair trials. Nevertheless, Morocco continues to ship out phosphate rock from Western Sahara onto the world market. The largest customer is the United States. - The political significance of phosphorus in this conflict will increase with rising prices for phosphate ore, says Erik Hagen.

 Today's handling of phosphorus also creates serious environmental problems. Each ton of phosphate produced from phosphate rock produces approximately five tons of gypsum as byproduct. The gypsum is difficult to use because it contains radioactive substances from the ore, principally uranium and thorium. Therefore landfills in Marocco harbor enormous amounts of gypsum, which in the worst case can contaminate groundwater.

 The phosphorus that ends up in fields may cause a different type of problem: eutrophication. For several decades it was considered that emissions of nitrogen was the main cause of runaway algae blooms and dead zones in the Baltic Sea. But a few years ago the focus fell on phosphorus. The largest single source is leaching from fertilized fields. The food we eat contains only a fifth of phosphorus mined. The rest is lost on the long road from the mine to the fork. It should therefore be possible to economize better. - One way is to eat less meat. Carnivores consume more than twice as much phosphorus as vegetarians, says Dana Cordell, who is a vegetarian. In her house she has a urine-separating toilet and collects the urine in a tank outdoors for later use as fertilizer. She also fertilizes with compost from their dry toilet.

 This type of management is hardly an option for populations in major cities. It reduces wate of large amounts of phosphorus and other nutrients in the cycle. One of the environmental goals of the Swedish parlament is to recycle at least 60 percent of the total phosphorus in wastewater to productive land by 2015. One easy way to recycle phosphorus is to fertilize fields with sludge from sewage treatment plants. The problem is that the sludge also contains drug residues, flame retardants, heavy metals and other toxins from both households and industries.

 Swedish waterindustry organizations have developed a list of requirements to get the sludge spread on fields. The goal is to have certified sludge acceptable from an environmental and health viewpoint. But opponents argue that certification will lull both farmers and consumers into falsely believing that the sludge is clean and safe.

 There are alternative ways to capture nutrients from wastewater. In sewage treatment, problems sometimes arise when yellowish deposits of the mineral struvite clogs pipes and pumps. The mineral contains nitrogen and phosphorus bound to magnesium and is excellent as a fertilizer. Several treatment plants in the world are now testing to precipitate struvite by pouring magnesium oxide in wastewater. - It works surprisingly well, says David Heldt who a few years ago tested this technology in Stockholm as part of their tests at the Royal Institute of Technology.

 The advantage is that the precipitated mineral is almost completely free from other contaminants found in water. The disadvantage is that the method is expensive. Rising prices of phosphate ore will favor new ways to recycle nutrients and conserve phosphate ore. Dana Cordell stresses that several different measures will be needed to supply the world with phosphorus into the future. - The chances of success increase if we realize that we are indeed facing a serious problem.

 You have just read an article from the journal Research & Progress, written in april 2010.

 You may also be interested in this article:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/10/fertilizers-and-soil-impoverishment.html

and maybe this one:

 http://axiom1b.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-population-explosion-worlds.html

Todde november 2015

Mobile banking - banking in your mobile

  Could it be something for the future?

  Could it reduce our dependence on banks?

  How long time will it be before the banks take over this new phenomenon?

  Check the article in Research and Progress - Article is in Swedish - but you can translate it with google translate at:

https://translate.google.se/?hl=sv

http://fof.se/tidning/2015/9/artikel/sa-blev-banken-i-mobilen-en-revolution 

Todde

PS. You could also be interested in:

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/10/aprogram-to-make-you-more-skeptical-of.html

http://axiom1b.blogspot.se/2015/05/a-disturbing-thought-about-lowinterest.html