Germany's development of synthetic fertilizer during World War I dramatically expanded global population capacity; without that discovery, Earth could support only about 2 billion people rather than the current 8 billion.

causalpending

Speaker

Luigi Zales

Evidence Quote

if uh the German chemistry during war war I had not understood how to use fertilizer uh the maximum amount of population that we could support today would be 2 billion and we are at eight

Source

The Fertility Crisis: Capitalism's Next Challenge, with Sir Niall FergusonStigler Center
Created: 8/11/2026, 7:18:48 AM

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