Can the World Find Solutions to the Nitrogen Pollution Crisis?
Just like having a carbon footprint, the world needs to consider excess nitrogen.
Norman Borlaug won a Nobel Peace prize for his work in increasing the yields of grains to feed hungry populations but with the use of increasing amounts of fertilizers. Now, as the climate change clock nears doomsday, his methods and hybridizations, the "green revolution" are being seen as a short-term resolution of problematic hungry populations.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/can-the-world-find-solutions-to-the-nitrogen-pollution-crisis
"The world is using nitrogen fertilizer less and less efficiently. A greater proportion than ever before is washing into rivers and oceans. An environmental catastrophe looms, nitrogen scientists say, and the world urgently needs to develop strategies to prevent it.
Post-war physicists fearing nuclear apocalypse came up with the Doomsday Clock. In the 1980s, biologists contemplating ecological meltdown began talking about “biodiversity” loss as a way to tag and measure the crisis. Soon after, climate scientists recast concern over global warming with a warning that within a century it would lead to temperatures greater than any in human history.
Now, it is nitrogen’s turn. [snip]