By Tom Laskawy10 April 2012 When I examined the reasons agriculture often gets a pass in climate negotiations recently, I pointed to the fact that precise measurement of the climate impact of many industrial farming practices remains difficult and controversial. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The effect of excess […]
By Darren Osborne, ABC16 March 2012 The increasing amount of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the last 65 years is due to nitrogen-based fertilisers, according to a new study. An international team of scientists, led by University of California-Berkeley researcher Dr Sunyoung Park, made the finding after studying air collected at the Cape Grim […]
By Tara Patel13 March 2012 Water pollution from agriculture is costing billions of dollars a year in developed countries and is expected to increase in China and India as farmers race to increase food production, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said. “Pollution from farm pesticides and fertilizers is often diffuse, making it hard […]
Paris (AFP) 7 March 2012 – Water management needs urgent reform if the world is to head off serious deterioration in the quality and quantity of water available. At the release of the OECD’s Meeting the Water Reform Challenge, OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría warned that ,“Without major policy changes, we risk high costs to economic […]
NEW ORLEANS, 1 February 2012 (AP) – A new study finds that Louisiana’s second Gulf of Mexico dead zone stretches at least from the Chandeleur Sound off Louisiana to Alabama’s Dauphin Island — and could be bigger. John Lopez, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Wednesday that the foundation was able to […]
23 January 2012 (UNEP) – Industrially produced nutrient fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus) are essential to global food security and have been the main driver of dramatically improved agricultural yields over the last sixty years to feed a growing population. At the same time, excess nutrients from inefficient use in farming and insufficient treatment of nutrients in […]
25 January 2012 (Agence France-Presse) – The worldwide fishing industry could benefit from a $50 billion boost annually if stocks were allowed time to recover, the UN said Wednesday. Already 32 percent of the world’s fish stocks have been depleted by years of overfishing and poor coastal management, according to a UN Environment Programme report […]
By Nancy Shute20 January 2012 Food is getting elbowed out of the discussion on climate change, which could spell disaster for the 1 billion people who will be added to the world’s population in the next 15 years. That’s the word today from scientists wondering why food and sustainability get such short shrift when it […]
Water scarcity is growing and salinization and pollution of groundwater and degradation of water bodies and water-related ecosystems are rising, the State of the World’s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW) reports. Large inland water bodies are under pressure from a combination of reduced inflows and higher nutrient loading — the excessive […]
By Josephine Forster and Michael McCarthy 16 January 2012 Olympic athletes could suffer impaired performance times and become ill as a result of London’s unacceptably high levels of air pollution, leading respiratory scientists are warning. Fears are growing that during the Games, beginning in July, athletes, who take in much more air than a sedentary […]
