Haber-Bosch Process Persuasive Essay

            Ammonia, crops, and population are all related through the Haber-Bosch process. The Haber-Bosch process is the synthesis of ammonia at high temperatures by using Hydrogen and Nitrogen gas. This is useful to humans by using Nitrogen-based fertilizers, used to grow crops. By having synthesized fertilizers, the human population increases due to an increase in food supply. Even though this is a positive effect of the Haber-Bosch process, overall there was a negative impact on human civilization.
           Since the Haber-Bosch process caused an increase in human population to a capacity much higher than the optimal number. "It stated that people would inevitably produce more mouths to feed than food to feed them, since population "increases in a geometrical ratio" while "subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio." This means that population multiplies and the population will grow more rapidly because there are more people capable to reproduce. The Haber-Bosch process was invented when the population was only at 2 billion in 1898. Present day, the population is now at 7 billion, happening during a span of only 117 years. When the article states that "subsistence only increases in an arithmetical ratio," that means that the amount of things being produced that humans need to live, will not increase at the same rate as the amount of people on the planet. With more people, there will be more people included in the doubling time.  This dilemma causes a shortage in natural resources, in which we will eventually run out of. This also causes an increase in green-house gases.
          Another negative impact on human civilization due to the effects of the Haber-Bosch process is the decision of taking away rights and ethics in order to achieve the optimal population number, or allowing nature to take matters into its own hands.“When we no longer have it—or if we ever decide to stop using it—that may be a number to which our own naturally gravitates.” The alternative to an orderly global “countdown” is, he warns, pretty dire. “Whether we accept it or not, this will likely be the century that determines what the optimal human population is for our planet,” he writes. “Either we decide to manage our own numbers, to avoid a collision of every line on civilization’s graph—or nature will do it for us.” This century is in charge of managing the population by implementing universal one-child policy ideas or nature will do it for the universe due to the lack of resources for the amount of people living on it. By forcing a one-child policy on people, it takes away rights and imposes ethical issues. Personally I feel you should not be able to tell people when they can and can not do when reproducing and living the life they want to live. 
          The rapid population growth has to do with the total fertility rates around the world. Places such as, Japan, have a total fertility rate lower than 1.5. People in Japan are not interested in having sex starting at the reproduction age. Low fertility rates are also in European countries, along with places like the Czech Republic. However due to overpopulation in areas in Africa such as, Niger and Somalia with a fertility rate above 5, there will always be more people added to the world and almost cancels out the decrease in population in other areas. 
           To reach the optimal number for the population, the population growth rate can not increase at this rate. Even with natural and tragic events that decrease the population, there is still not enough resources to sustain the population. Discussed ideas to decrease the total fertility rates are not ethical to implement. The Haber-Bosch process is a negative impact on human civilization, leading to a spiral of unwanted events. However, this process increases the food production, which then leads to an increase in population, which overall is the issue being faced globally.