The alarming truth about phosphorus

Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer. In this major work of explanatory science, Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of phosphorus.

Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, our overreliance on this crop nutrient is causing toxic algae blooms, while diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the world's food system.

With The Devil’s Element, Egan has written an eye-opening account that urges us to pay attention to one of the most perilous environmental issues of our time.

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