Re:Carbon dioxide now more than 50% higher than pre-industri...
by ben_w on Monday June 06, 2022 @05:33PM
(#31646581)
> Overfertilization is a major issue
An unrelated issue. That’s important. I have no reason to expect it to get worse. What runs off the fields is necessarily not used by crops.
> And you can bet farmers are already maxing that out as much as they can on an industrial scale.
I doubt that.
All industries, agriculture included, are incentivised to maximise profits. Optimising profit sure isn’t environmentally friendly, but it also doesn’t mean treating fertiliser as a magic potion.
That’s pointlessly expensive right now for most crops, so those are fairly limited. Likewise, the economically optimal quantity of fertiliser used by farms is different from the optimal quantity for the health of people living down-river — but that’s just as true regardless of if CO2 is higher or lower than we consider desirable for the general global climate.
An unrelated issue. That’s important. I have no reason to expect it to get worse. What runs off the fields is necessarily not used by crops.
> And you can bet farmers are already maxing that out as much as they can on an industrial scale.
I doubt that.
All industries, agriculture included, are incentivised to maximise profits. Optimising profit sure isn’t environmentally friendly, but it also doesn’t mean treating fertiliser as a magic potion.
A productivity optimised farm looks like this: https://farmingaquaponics.com/aeroponics-vs-hydroponics/
That’s pointlessly expensive right now for most crops, so those are fairly limited. Likewise, the economically optimal quantity of fertiliser used by farms is different from the optimal quantity for the health of people living down-river — but that’s just as true regardless of if CO2 is higher or lower than we consider desirable for the general global climate.