La veille

The excessive use of phosphorus is depleting reserves vital to global food production, while also adding to the climate crisis

It doesn’t even work yet, but nuclear fusion has encountered a shortage of tritium, the key fuel source for the most prominent experimental reactors.

The founder and director of Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer of electronics, Terry Gou, has said that “there will be a shortage of electricity in the next year.” Gou added that “people should not complain about the future lack of electricity.” Instead, they should “prepare”.

The recent spike in natural gas prices has closed many plants that make fertiliser in the UK – sending a shockwave through lots of other industries.

Vaccine maker Seqirus wrote to GPs warning of delays from ‘unforeseen road freight challenges’ The letter did not explain whether the delays were related to the continuing shortage of lorry drivers that has led to supermarkets running out of certain goods and fast food outlets having to close as they are unable to serve signature dishes. The British Medical Association warned that the delay in delivery would have a major impact. It comes on top of a severe shortage of blood sample bottles, which last week led NHS England to order GPs and hospitals to cut back dramatically the number of blood tests they carry out, which has forced doctors to ration which patients have their blood taken.

Water shortages are now affecting more than 3 billion people around the world, as the amount of fresh water available for each person has plunged by a fifth over two decades, data has shown. About 1.5 billion people are suffering severe water scarcity or even drought, as a combination of climate breakdown, rising demand and poor management has made agriculture increasingly difficult across swathes of the globe.

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for all forms of life. It is a key element in our DNA and all living organisms require daily phosphorus intake to produce energy. It cannot be replaced and there is no synthetic substitute: without phosphorus, there is no life.Reserves are limited and not equally spread over the planet.