We hear about global warming and its potential human cause all of the time. It's becoming increasingly obvious that if we want to continue living on this planet for a while, we are going to need to at least clean things up a bit, to say the least. We even hear that we can reduce our own personal contribution to pollution by driving a more energy efficient car or by keeping up on our recycling. But doesn't pollution mainly come from airplanes and big factories with smokestacks? When we think of pollution, we usually think about huge smoke plumes and major urban areas.
You might be surprised to hear that this isn't the largest source of fine-particulate air pollution. Another huge source of pollution, many argue, is unavoidable and relates to our basic need to eat.
There might be some good news, though. If pollution from one source is reduced, the impact of the other is lessened.
If you don't already know about the main source of air pollution, you need to read this article and SHARE it with your Facebook friends.
Across the world, over three million deaths result from air pollution per year.
Researchers believe that this number could double by the year 2050.
Authors of a study published in Nature urged that unless world governments do something about pollution fast, this number could go even higher.
Fine-particulate air pollution results from a combination of different sources of emissions.
This is the main thing that people misunderstand about air pollution. It doesn't just result from industrial emissions alone. Fine particles from smokestacks, forest fires, or automobiles fill the air and combine with emissions from largely agricultural sources.
Yes, farms that grow our healthy, natural food are the biggest single contributor to this form of air pollution.
You need to hear how farms do it...
Nitrogen-rich fertilizers are one of the main culprits.
When emissions from fertilizers (usually in the form of ammonia) combine with pollutants that result from burning or combustion, dangerous solid particles (aerosols) are made. These are the particles known to become embedded in your lungs that cause disease.
So what do we do if food production is killing us?
It's inevitable that we'll need more fertilizers to grow plants...
There is good news to report!
Given that emissions from combustion are expected to drop in the years to come, there will be fewer nitrogen oxides to combine with fertilizer-based emissions.
The GIF below shows how nitrogen dioxide levels have in fact dropped between the years of 2005 and 2011 specifically. You will notice how there is less red around major urban centers as the animation gets closer to us in time.
It's still possible for fertilizers to pollute ground water.
Just because there will be less pollution resulting from combustion-based sources doesn't mean that everything is fine and good. Fertilizer run-off from farms is a major issue that developed countries need to pay attention to. Soil containing high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus can taint nearby water sources.
While the news appears to be good when it comes to the prognosis of air pollution resulting from farming sources, it's a surprising issue that many politicians have yet to fully consider in the raging global warming debate.
SHARE this article on Facebook because everyone needs to know about this surprising source of air pollution.
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