sbl

I agree wholeheartedly with you regarding the environmental consequences of excess fertilizers--it is what I spent a significant part of my career working on. However, even natural sources of fertilizer can be responsible for eutrophication--case in point--I remember a river in the Pacific NW where the source of the eutrophication was traced to salt spray from the ocean that acted as a cation exchange to release natural N in soils formed by N fixation in Aspens.

In the Gulf of Mexico, 70% of the excess N in the Mississippi River comes from the corn belt---much of the remainder comes from municipal inputs.
As a scientist, I also think that much of the problem comes from removal of the consumers--In Chesapeake Bay in the 1600s, oysters filtered the entire volume of the bay in 3 to 4 days--now it takes 300-400 days.

I also agree with the damage caused by mining (all mining), but we just need to make the mine companies put up the money for restoration before they do the mining--the mines can be restored --it just takes money.

Last, the argument about salt killing microbes is highly overstated. It is not the presence of salt, it is the concentration of salt. All animals, plants and microbe require salt, but when the concentration inside or outside is too high, it can be lethal.

There are many differences in requirements depending on the soil and environmental or climatic conditions. We have very sandy soil with very low natural nutrient/mineral levels. There are several plants that won't grow here due to salt (IN THE AIR). Our high rainfall (5 to 6 ft a yr) washes out salts and nutrients. Addition of organic matter helps retain nutrients and add trace minerals, but unless you have a farm lot full of animals, it is almost impossible to maintain a productive healthy garden without frequent additions of commercial fertilizers.