Phosphorus shortages could cause a global catastrophe unlike anything we've ever seen

Our world is facing a critical shortage of phosphorus that is threatening our fertilizer supply and pushing us toward global famine according to a new warning from scientists. 

Unfortunately, we might be in a bit of a no-win situation since phosphorus-laden fields and farming practices are also destroying our environment and adding to the climate crisis. 

“We have reached a critical turning point,” Professor Phil Haygarth of Lancaster University explained to The Guardian’s science editor Robin Makie. 

Photo by Twitter @ProfPHaygarth

“We might be able to turn back but we have really got to pull ourselves together and be an awful lot smarter in the way we use phosphorus,” Makie continued. 

“If we don’t, we face a calamity that we have termed phosphogeddon,” the Lancaster University professor added, in a warning that was more dire than it appeared. 

Phosphorus could be described as the key chemical element that has allowed our world to prosper since its discovery in the seventeenth century. 

Modern farming techniques are wholly dependent on phosphorus-based fertilizers in order to produce the crop yields needed to feed our world according to Robin Makie. 

“About 50m tonnes of phosphate fertilizer are sold around the world every year,” Makie wrote, and these supplies play a crucial role in feeding the planet’s 8 billion inhabitants.”

“To put it simply, there is no life on Earth without phosphorus,” Bristol University Professor Penny Johnes told Robin Mackie, a situation that should worry you. 

Since the late nineteenth century, phosphorus has been extracted from the Earth and used in farming according to Wired Magazine’s Max Levy.

Nations found a way to “supercharge” crop production using phosphorus fertilizer to streamline growing processes, allowing farmers to create evergrowing crop yields. 

“That approach worked remarkably well,” Levy wrote. “The post-World War II ‘Green Revolution’ fed countless people thanks to fertilizers and pesticides.” But there was a downside. 

Levy added that the world transitioned to the use of phosphorus to bolster crop yields so quickly that we polluted our freshwater ecosystems and created a situation where we’ve become too dependent on this "nonrenewable" chemical. 

Worse yet, the world has recently come to a point where most of its reserves of phosphorus have been depleted, and phosphorus isn’t a very recyclable chemical.

“When it washes from soil into waterways, it essentially disappears forever,” Levy wrote, adding that we could be heading towards disaster if “demand eclipses supply.”

Disappearing stocks combined with the current global shortages has left researchers extremely worried that we could be racing towards a world without phosphorus. 

“This growing strain on stocks has raised fears the world will reach ‘peak phosphorus’ in a few years,” Robin Makie wrote. 

“Supplies will then decline, leaving many nations struggling to obtain enough to feed their people,” The Guardian's science editor added. 

Sadly there are no quick fixes for this problem but one ingenious scientist does believe we could find a solution in reclaiming phosphorus from our bodies. 

Arthur Davis is the director of Rich Earth’s Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program and he believes the key to solving the phosphorous problem is in our pee. 

“Around sixty percent of the phosphorus we excrete comes out in our pee,” Davis told Max Levy, going on to explain that we need to reclaim the chemical from our urine to solve our problems or else it will just end up in our lakes—causing even more issues.