Leaked fertilizers cause the production of algae that make water undrinkable.
Usually, when looking for the people and the chemicals responsible for climate change and the increased toxicity levels on our planet, we turn our attention to power plants, the oil industry, and fossil fuels. When it comes to pollution, nobody thinks about farms, but the truth is fertilizers are killing the planet as much as fossil fuel exploitation is.
The Nobel Prize laureate Carl Bosch and his associate, Fritz Haber, are the inventors of the fertilizer. According to the estimates, the two men saved roughly 40 percent of the world population with the chemical compound, but now, things are going south for the farms that prefer to use the synthetic version instead of the eco-friendly one.
It seems that the runoff that makes its way into rivers, lakes, streams, and oceans boosted the amount of algal blooms and “dead zones” all over the United States. From the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, Water Works companies are complaining that they are spending from $4000 to $7000 per day to purify the drinking water, stripping it of the nitrates that come from the excess fertilizer.
Moreover, according to an article published in the “Geophysical Research Letters” journal, animal agriculture and fertilizer use is one of the main contributors to air pollution all around the world.
This is not the first study to point out the fact that farms are salvation and damnation at the same time. A couple of months ago, an independent researcher was claiming that the methane produced by cattle is thinning the ozone layer more than the oil industry.
The previously cited study may not be so drastic, but it does reach similar conclusions. Unfortunately, ever since the chemical fertilizer was invented, the world population boomed. If its use were to be banned, billions would starve.
The author of the paper argues that countries in which the level of air pollution has already reached alarming rates, like the United States and China, farms should redirect their attention to the more expensive, but healthier eco-fertilizers.
On the other hand, countries in Africa where air pollution levels are not concerning could continue to use the chemical product until an alternative is found.
Fertilizers are killing the planet, and we need to find a solution to replace them gradually with something greener.
Image source: Wikipedia
