John D. Hamaker (1914–1994), was an American mechanical engineer, ecologist, agronomist and science writer in the fields of soil regeneration, rock dusting, mineral cycles, climate cycles and glaciology.

Biography

Background

Hamaker was born in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and graduated from Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering. Concerned for the environment, he became a student of ecology and agriculture and was influenced by books such as Bread From Stones,Bread From Stones: A New and Rational System of Land Fertilization and Physical Regeneration, republished by Acres USA, Austin, Texas – Julius HenselJulius Hensel by John Mann which showed that plants grow better in soils generated by mimicking natural soil-forming processes that take millennia, such as the advance and retreat of glaciers scouring the Earth's crust, or rock weathering of volcanic lava. In the 1960s, Hamaker cultivated an interest in soil and climate issues, and began publishing articles about how the health of an individual, society and planetary ecology thrive only as an interdependent whole. For 30 years, he wrote and campaigned for organic agriculture based on soil remineralization, and was the first to call for the remineralization of the Earth to forestall the next glacial period within the current ice age cycle. He produced a book, The Survival Of Civilization, in 1982, republished in 2002"Hamaker's book, The Survival of Civilization, published in 1982, declares that only a worldwide remineralization of the soil can stop a plunge into the worst catastrophe of recorded history. He wrote that we must stop fossil fuel use on a crash basis, grind rocks to put the minerals back into the soil to save our forests and crops, and manage the greatest social transition ever attempted. Otherwise we die.", The Big Climate Shift Coverup Revisited, Acres, U.S.A., Volume 16, page 28, published by Acres U.S.A., Kansas City, Missouri, 1989, digitized by Cornell University, Dec 16, 2008 as Remineralize The Earth.

Early developments

In the 1970s, a series of scientific conferences concluded that the world's climate was cooling.Implications of the Climatic Controversy for Global Society, Irving Kaplan, November 1980, "In 1972, a sizable group of climatologists meeting at Brown University issued letters to the governments of the world in which they warned of a global climatic disaster. Again in 1974, the International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study issued a similarly grave message to the community of governments from a meeting in Bonn. In 1976, a meeting of 85 climatologists chaired by Nobel Laureate Willard Libby and pioneer climatologist Cesare Emiliani put forth another warning which it had written in 1974 and which provided the same message in greater detail. The consensus of the 1979 World Climate Conference was reported by Nature as stating that the world had entered a 10,000 year cooling, that the warming theory was complex and questionable and that the loss of life and economic substance to the climate would increase." Books such as The Cooling,The Cooling, Lowe Ponte, 1976, "The cooling has already killed thousands of people in poor nations. If it continues and no strong measures are taken to deal with it, the cooling will cause world famine, world chaos, and probably world war, and this could all come about by the year 2000." The Weather Conspiracy,The Weather Conspiracy, Peter Kilroy, Alastair Clark and The Climate Impact Team, Heron Publishing/Ballantine Books (1977). . The Weather Machine & The Threat Of Ice,The Weather Machine & The Threat Of Ice, Nigel Calder, BBC Publications, 1974, "Going by past form, the warm periods between ice ages last about 10,000 years and ours has lasted 10,000 years. One might therefore argue that there is a virtual certainty of the next ice age starting some time in the next two thousand years. Then the odds are only about 20 to 1 against it beginning in the next 100 years." Climates Of Hunger,Climates Of Hunger, Reid Bryson & Thomas Murray, University of Wisconsin Press, 1979 Ice AgesIce Ages, Imbrie and Imbrie, 1979, Enslow Publishers and Climate: Present, Past & FutureClimate: Present, Past & Future, H. H. Lamb, Routledge 1977 warned of a coming ice age within decades. In 1975, Newsweek ran an article entitled "The Cooling World" that foretold the decimation of agricultural productivity based on a dramatic decrease in the Earth's temperature. and the New York Times published the article "Scientists ask why world is changing; Major cooling may be ahead".Newspaper clipping wmconnolley.org.uk/ In parallel, books such as A Blueprint for Survival,A Blueprint for Survival, Edward Goldsmith, Penguin Books, 1972 The Limits To Growth,The Limits To Growth, Donella Meadows, Club Of Rome, 1972 and The Population Bomb,The Population Bomb, Paul Ehrlich, Ballantine Books, 1976 warned of multiple social, economic, ecological and population crises. At the same time, Hamaker continued to generate articles and bulletinsFactors That May Be Bringing On The Next Ice Age and How We Can Stop It, John Hamaker, Hamaker Weaver PublishersSolar Age Or Ice Age? Bulletin, John Hamaker, Hamaker-Weaver Publishers and campaign for the remineralization of the world's soils.

According to his writings, in 1976, Hamaker spread rock dust on part of his in Michigan. The following year, his corn produced 65 bushels per acre, compared to yields of under 25 from other local farms, and also tested higher in many minerals. He calculated that remineralizing the soil with river, seashore, mountain and glacial rock dust would enable American agriculture to produce four times as much food or the same amount with a 25% reduction in cost, without the need for pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

The Survival Of Civilization

In 1982, he produced with Californian ecologist Donald A. Weaver The Survival Of Civilization: Carbon Dioxide, Investment Money, Population – Three Problems Threatening Our Existence, which was re-published by Remineralize The Earth in 2002 The Survival Of Civilization: Carbon Dioxide, Investment Money, Population – Three Problems Threatening Our Existence; Soil, Tectonics, Climate & Economic Systems Explained-Problems and Solutions, John Hamaker & Donald Weaver, Hamaker Weaver Publishers, 1982 / Remineralize The Earth, 2002 and in 2006 by SoilandHealth.org. Annotations and supporting evidence were provided by Weaver. The book which initially sold 14,000 copies, concerned the threat of an imminent ice age, remineralizing the world's soils on a local and global scale and reforesting the planet to return atmospheric carbon dioxide to a normal interglacial level near 280 ppm, to help slow the glacial advance."worldwide destruction of forests at 30 hectares per minute, plus acid rain and pollution, depleted minerals in soils – also causing trees and forests to die and burn, causing the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere normally balanced by forests, causing extremes in climate, cold, heat, drought, floods, storms, wind and an imminent new ice age, causing crop failure, food shortages, global famine and starvation, - is the end of civilization." The Survival Of Civilization, John Hamaker, Hamaker-Weaver Publishers, 1982

The treatise was a synthesis of Hamaker's thinking that emerged from his studies and research in several disciplines including soil science and paleoclimatology. His message, dubbed the Hamaker Thesis, was that due to modern agricultural and agro-forestry practices, the soils were running out of minerals, causing the dying and burning of forests worldwide and nutrient deficiencies in food. He offered soil remineralization as a solution, advocating regeneration of soil and forests with rock dusts as an economic and ecologically sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Hamaker regarded this as one of the most powerful ideas in human history. The book and its message was well received by soil and nutritional scientists and regarded as a blueprint for restoring the planet's ecological integrity by the worldwide remineralization movement."The book contained a carbon dioxide curve based on the Mauna Loa recorded concentration of carbon dioxide between 1957 and 1976, plus an anticipated extension of the curve based on soil demineralization and anticipated forest decline and burning. This curve demonstrates that more than 345 part per million of will produce a glacial period if nothing is done to reduce the carbon dioxide. The destruction of our forests must be offset and a sufficient soil forest-energy program must be carried out to stop and reverse the increase." The Big Climate Shift Coverup Revisited, Tree War Assembly (Massachusetts), in Acres USA, eco-agriculture newspaper, 1990s

Testimonials

Endorsing the book, Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, author of the book Critical Path and Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in a publicized letter to Donald Weaver in 1983: "I have received and read John Hamaker's The Survival of Civilization. Well done. Completely convincing.... I will tell all those inquiring of me about matters relevant to our survival that they had best read Hamaker's book."To Love & Regenerate The Earth (book), Don Weaver, 2002, remineralize.org Reviewing the book, writer Bertram Cohen expressed concern that a global climate shift would make the temperate zone part of the sub-arctic zone and deprive humanity of its food supply.Bertram Cohen, Health Science Journal, American Natural Hygiene Society, Tampa, Florida, July 1986 Cohen also pointed out that "Dr Herbert Shelton, both in his books and in Hygienic Review, emphasised the importance of soil remineralization in creating a Hygienic Agriculture."

In support of the book, The Earth Renewal Society presented a statement to a Congressional hearing in Chicago in March 1984.(Palynologist) Geneviève Woillard has shown that the transition period to an Ice Age occurs in a 75 to 150 period with an intense 20 year changeover period at the end. John Hamaker states that we are 10 years into this changeover period. His criteria are the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: the annual rate of increase doubled from 1975 to 1985 and will double again from 1985 to 1995. Other criteria: the increase of volcanic activity and of earthquakes, the shortening of the growing seasons, the increase of soil erosion - doubling in the United States from 1975 to 1981 - the increased flooding in spring, the increase of drought in the tropical areas and the drought in the temperate zones in summer, the increasing severity of winters, the increase of snow and ice masses in the polar regions, the advances of glaciers in localized areas such as China and the increase of forest fires." The Big Climate Shift Coverup Revisited, Acres USA, 1990s, page 28

Discoveries and inventions

Rock medicine

Hamaker believed remineralizing the world's soil with rock dust, a quarrying by-product, could revitalise barren soil and reverse climate change. Rock dust nourished soil micro-organisms whose protoplasm is the basis of all living things. When mixed with compost, the dust created rich, deep soils which could produce high growth vegetation free from pests and predators, at an accelerated rate. The idea was later confirmed by agricultural scientists such as Arden Andersen, who showed how high sugar and mineral levels in soil gave immunity to soil bacteria, stopping insect and fungal attacks.Anatomy Of Life and Energy in Agriculture, Arden Andersen, Paperback. . Publisher: Acres USA. For Hamaker and Andersen, minerals were the primal food for micro-organisms which provided life and health for the soil.

Rock grinders