Nitrogen fertilizer is bad stuff — and not just because it could blow up your town

[NickB79]

12. Yes, it has been wildly successful

It's just fallen far, far short of what we need at this point to save our asses from the fire we're building around us as we burn our way through a planet's worth of natural resources.

I would note that the ONLY time that China's population has actually declined in the past century was due to the Great Chinese Famine, when starvation swept the nation: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/14/opinion/chinas-great-shame.html?_r=0

An analogy would be to point out that renewable energy growth has been wildly successful over the past decade, but CO2 levels still continue to climb and the planet still continues to warm up. Too little, too late.