THE DEVIL S ELEMENT 8211 PHOSPHORUS

"[Phosphorus] today is precious and finite in the same way fossil fuels are. Yet we are blowing through Earth's accessible deposits at such a pace that, just like oil production, some scientists now fear we could hit 'peak phosphorus' in just a matter of decades, at which point we risk declining mining yields-- and chronic food scarcity.... Call it the phosphorus paradox--at the same time as we are drawing down our increasingly precious caches of mineable phosphorus rock we are overdosing our waters with it." --from the introduction Praise for Dan Egan's The Death and Life of the Great Lakes "Suspenseful, superbly informative, crucial." -- Louise Erdrich "Nimbly splices together history, science, reporting and personal experiences into a taut and cautiously hopeful narrative.... Egan's book is bursting with life (and yes, death)." -- Robert Moor, New York Times Book Review "Fascinating and brilliant... Egan's narrative often moves like a thriller." -- Vicky Albritton and Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Los Angeles Review of Books