Life, Death, War and Grain. Stories of Nitrogen.

This is the story of how nitrogen connects us to nature, for better or worse.

What does it mean that the Oslofjord is choking on nitrogen? Why is artificial fertilizer used to make bombs? And how can stinking ammonia be part of the solution to the climate problem?

Everything we humans do is connected to air, water, soil and lifethrough actual, physical substances. Nitrogen is one of the most important building blocks of all living things. We breathe nitrogen all the time, but the nitrogen in the air has a form that makes it useless to both us and others. We could never have had a green and lush earth without tiny organisms in the ancient oceans learning to convert nitrogen gas into useful materials.

Later, humans developed machines that could do the same. Today, our factories produce more reactive nitrogen than bacteria do. We use it both to grow life-giving food and for munitions that take lives in war. This is the story of how nitrogen connects us to nature, for better or worse.