The Story of N: A Social History of the Nitrogen Cycle and the Challenge of Sustainability

Contents

CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 PART I The Knowledge of Nature 1 The Emergence of a Biogeochemical Cycle 11 2 From Adaptation to Innovation 22 PART II Learning to Bypass an Ecological Limit 3 Innovation within an Ecological Limit 33 4 N and the Emergence of Market Capitalism 42 5 N and the Rise of Science 52 6 Bypassing an Ecological Limit 64 7 Industrializing a Biogeochemical Cycle 84 PART III Learning to Establish Human-Defined Limits 8 N in the Well 101 9 N in the Air 117 10 N in the Law 132 v iii CONT ENTS 11 N and the Seeds of an Ecological Economy 148 Conclusion: The Challenge of Sustainability 162 Notes 173 Bibliography 209 Index 235 ...