We’ve spoken often about those areas in industry that are contributing most to the current climate change. However an industry that has been swept under the radar is the agriculture industry. Not only does it too expel its own worth of emissions, but it could very well be the answer to a lot of our problems.
We’ve seen what their fertilizers are doing to the outlet of the Mississippi in the Gulf
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If you remember the ’70s, you also remember Chiffon Margarine teaching us that “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.” Today, though, we’re learning a new lesson: “It’s not as easy to fool Mother Nature as some presumptuous humans might think.”
Take, for example, one of the hot new technology fixes being proposed for global warming: ocean fertilization. The idea is to seed the oceans with iron or other nutrients to encourage [...]
Anyone who keeps up with the science of global warming knows that carbon dioxide alone isn’t the problem. Besides that and the other greenhouse gases (methane and nitrous oxide, for instance) we spew into the atmosphere, there’s also the threat of feedback loops and other mechanisms that could magnify the impact of those pollutants even more.
One of those mechanisms, it turns out, is drought. Which is a [...]
Technology can undoubtedly make the world a better place. Where, after all, would we be without the wheel, agriculture or email?
Still, there’s almost always a flipside to technological advances. The wheel improved not only travel, but warfare. Agriculture made food more reliable for humans … but also, eventually, helped give rise to confined animal feeding operations, the Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone and, for better or worse, the Hardee’s Thickburger. As for email? I have one word for you: Spam.
So when it comes to the fixes being offered for climate change, it’s wise to approach technology warily. Yes, in theory, we could erase our ever-growing greenhouse gas problem if we perfect carbon capture and storage … but that won’t eliminate the environmental degradation wrought by coal mining or the threat of peak oil. And, yes, more nuclear power might reduce our dependence on foreign oil … but it could only increase threats of sabotage or terrorism.
Even more troubling are the global warming “solutions” being offered by fans of geoengineering. This is the idea of seeding the oceans with iron to encourage plankton growth that absorbs carbon dioxide. Of course, too many nutrients in the ocean also cause algal blooms that suck up oxygen, making vast areas unlivable for marine species — again, think the Dead Zone. That’s why it was encouraging this week to hear one international organization come out against geoengineering experiments in the world’s oceans.
The International Maritime Convention (IMO), a United Nations agency with 167 member-states (including the U.S.) makes its primary focus maritime safety. This week, though, members of the IMO’s London Convention, a 1972 treaty on marine pollution, said they also have authority over geoengineering experiments at sea. Their “statement of concern” warned that, given our current knowledge of how ocean fertilization works, large-scale experiments of that nature “are currently not justified.”
Over my tenure as part of the Green Options network, I’ve brought you – more often than not – the gloomy side of global warming. Of course, I would say that there is no good side, but I’m trying to be a bit lenient here. As Green Options undergoes some changes, I’ll be writing primarily here at Planet Save.
And that works well right now, considering that Inez Fung, a professor of atmospheric sciences and co-director of the University of California, Berkeley, Institute of the Environment, has provided a link that has hitherto been ignored.
I’ve brought you stories on increased carbon emissions, our oceans not absorbing enough, rising levels, etc. The problem is, that there is a link between all of these that is scary, and we’ve just sort of missed it.
Until recently, our lovely Earth has had two major carbon sinks. First of all, being made up of 70% water was a definite bonus. It would absorb the carbon, draw it down, and lock it away from the atmosphere. But as the waters have warmed, and there has been a lack of mixing between the upper warmer layer and the lower colder layer, the oceans ability to absorb carbon decreases.
The second problem that many may not be aware of is photosynthesis. And by “be aware of”, I mean, probably forgot from your primary school days. We all know that forests are massive carbon sinks, and with being trimmed back like a bad mullet and suffering from increasing drought across the planet, the amount that is absorbed through photosynthesis is also diminishing.
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