What? No more fertilizer?

[Diggin It]

Research conducted by an international team of 57 scientists, whose findings were published Wednesday in Nature, indicates that atmospheric nitrous oxide has climbed 20% from pre-industrial levels, and that its growth is accelerating.

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In 1750, according to the researchers, nitrous oxide accounted for 270 parts per billion, an atmospheric concentration that grew to 331 ppb by 2018.

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This is a swifter growth than any other greenhouse gas emissions and may mean that even the highest projected warming scenarios are underestimating the impact that rising N2O emissions will have on global average temperatures.

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"The dominant driver of the increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide comes from agriculture, and the growing demand for food and feed for animals will further increase global nitrous oxide emissions", Hanqin Tian, lead author of the study and a climate scientist at Auburn University, said in a statement. "There is a conflict between the way we are feeding people and stabilizing the climate"

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Nearly three-quarters of the United States N2O emissions originate from agricultural soil management, including the use of fertilizer, whose introduction in the 1960s alongside pesticides sparked a 敵reen Revolution that brought with it rising crop and livestock yields as well as expanding emissions.


Scientists Say Focus on Farming Emissions Required to Reach Climate Goals

 

[Oaktree]

Nearly three-quarters of the United States N2O emissions originate from agricultural soil management, including the use of fertilizer, whose introduction in the 1960s alongside pesticides sparked a 敵reen Revolution that brought with it rising crop and livestock yields as well as expanding emissions.

Bottom line, there's no free lunch. So what's the answer, going back to spreading manure?

 

[MossRoad]

Bottom line, there's no free lunch. So what's the answer, going back to spreading manure?

They're gonna tell you to stop raising animals for meat. It takes way more plant matter, therefore fertilizers, to convert meat to consumable protein than it does just to eat beans.

 

[deserteagle71]

I'd like to know where they got that figure for the year 1750? What kind of instruments were used to get that figure? To me, just throwing out a number like that without explaining how it was derived - I mean, who was measuring nitrogen levels in 1750 and why and how? Sounds like a big guess to me and to that I say garbage in = garbage out.

 

[Diggin It]

I'd like to know where they got that figure for the year 1750? What kind of instruments were used to get that figure?

I'm guessing core samples from trees, aged by ring counts.

 

[MossRoad]

I'd like to know where they got that figure for the year 1750? What kind of instruments were used to get that figure? To me, just throwing out a number like that without explaining how it was derived - I mean, who was measuring nitrogen levels in 1750 and why and how? Sounds like a big guess to me and to that I say garbage in = garbage out.

As mentioned, core samples from ice are very accurate as to what was in the atmosphere at a given point in time.

 

[MossRoad]

I'd like to know where they got that figure for the year 1750? What kind of instruments were used to get that figure? To me, just throwing out a number like that without explaining how it was derived - I mean, who was measuring nitrogen levels in 1750 and why and how? Sounds like a big guess to me and to that I say garbage in = garbage out.

Here's a good read on how it's done. Fascinating....

Picture Climate: What Can We Learn from Ice? | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) formerly known as National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)

 

[Motorboatin]

I'd like to know where they got that figure for the year 1750? What kind of instruments were used to get that figure? To me, just throwing out a number like that without explaining how it was derived - I mean, who was measuring nitrogen levels in 1750 and why and how? Sounds like a big guess to me and to that I say garbage in = garbage out.

Ice cores

They have atmospheric data going back more than 500,000 years


Edit: I see Moss beat me to it

 

[Mat4644]

It's all the motor heads in the cities with nitrous injected cars!:laughing:

 

[Motorboatin]

This documentary is on Netflix. I watched it last week and it is interesting. A little bit of propaganda but mostly the science behind farming