WASHINGTON: According to researchers from the University of Wisconsin, apart from CO2 emissions, phosphorous and nitrogen released into the atmosphere can potentially cause more harm to the planet.
Professor Stephen Carpenter, Director of the Center for Limnology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his colleagues published a paper in the scientific magazine Science.
They indicated how human activities are turning Earth into an inhabitable planet. They also discussed other topics such as biodiversity loss and climate change caused by global warming.
Carpenter warned that the uncontrolled use of artificial fertilizers like phosphorus and nitrogen could push Earth beyond its boundaries and could destroy it in future.
Carpenter mentioned that America possesses enough phosphorus and nitrogen to fertilize farmlands unlike African countries, which have little access to these elements.
Therefore, there is no requirement of excessive amount of fertilizers in lands of United States unlike certain lands in Africa, which need nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers to get a better yield. Earth’s ecosystem had been in balance for thousands of years. This proved helpful in the development of important events in human civilization, which includes start of agriculture, rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and the Industrial Revolution.
However, human activities began to create disorder on the planet by the start of the 20th century.
Carpenter said, “We’ve changed nitrogen and phosphorus cycles vastly more than any other element. The increase is on the order of 200 to 300%. In contrast, carbon has only been increased 10 to 20% and looks at all the uproar that has caused in the climate”.
Carpenter has recommended that Western industrial farmers should cut down on excessive use of artificial fertilizers as extra phosphorus and nitrogen is knocking out the balance of the ecosystem. The report will be presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next week.
