Using Up Phosphorous

FIRST, THE BAD NEWS. It is estimated that, at the current rate of consumption, the world's supply of the chemical element phosphorous will be exhausted within fifty years. Estimates vary, anywhere from thirty to a hundred years, pick your scientist. The good news is that we might be able to do something about it, assuming that long term weather patters permit our existence, let alone phosphorous reclamation. The chemical is known as "phosphate" in its usable form, number fifteen on ye olde periodic table of the elements, designated by the letter "P", appropriately. Deeply embedded in and integral to all DNA, it is essential for the proper functioning of DNA, hence, life itself. We use it primarily for fertilizer, in which the chemical is absorbed by plants, and transmitted to animals. Seventy five percent of the world's supply is mined in Morocco, whose government, understandably, is very secretive about and very protective of its valuable resource. Fertilizer is overused, resulting in ninety percent of all phosphorous ending up in the ocean, unreclaimable. therein lies the rub. In the seventeenth century alchemists busily sought ways of turning lead into gold, and anything else into phosphorous. One clever gent collected an vast vat filled abundance of human urine, boiled it down, and the remaining waxy material turned out to be...phosphorous. Modern chemists are no less enterprising. There is a lady in Vermont who has her yard filled with large containers of human urine, wherein she gets her supply. Yes, you are thinking what scientists are thinking: recycle our liquid waste, and its off to the races, phosphorously. Why let all that good yellow pee go down the drain, uselessly? Save the pee! urine is remarkably free of pathogens, unlike poop, so, never the twain shall meet, and, with a little luck and good solid chemistry, we'll be forever drinking water, taking vitamins, and letting our yellow streams do our work. Happy planting.