This unit, called Death, in our Food For Thought class, we learned about the dangers of agriculture and how the absence of agriculture would affect the world. I decided to write my persuasive speech about nutrient runoff and eutrophication because it is a very serious world problem caused by agriculture, and I believe more people need to know about it.
FFT- MDS Speech from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.
Eutrophication will, if it continues at the same rate, destroy much of our agricultural system and resources in a matter of years. Eutrophication is the main cause of ocean dead zones, which are areas of oceans that are hypoxic, or have low-oxygen levels, which almost nothing can survive in. Did you know we get more than half of our oxygen supply from the ocean and microorganisms living there? At the rate that dead zones are occurring in bodies of water across the world, all of the ocean life will be dead by the year 2050. (“Deadzone”) This means less than half of our oxygen supply, and almost 86% less of our water supply will be unusable to humans, and any other living thing on Earth. This includes all of our food sources. Yearly, Agriculture uses about 80 percent of our total water usage in the United States (“Deadzone”).
Eutrophication has become a very serious problem of late, but it has existed for thousands of years. Eutrophication has appeared naturally in nature for thousands of years not causing any problems. The first time that nutrient runoff became problematic was during the civilization of Ancient Egypt. Because of the extreme heat and harsh conditions of the Sahara Desert, the whole of the civilization was based upon the Nile River. It was their source of life. It was the water they used to clean, drink, and water plants and animals. Before they knew about the dangers of nutrient runoff, the ancient farmers of Egypt would wash the animal’s waste into the river. Before long, they started to see dead fish floating in the river, causing many to get sick, and a strange green goo in their water supply. Of course, this was the extra nutrients from the cattle’s waste that had washed into the river and destroyed much of their water supply (Schmidt).
Eutrophication has been a problem for a lot of human history. In ancient Egypt, they did not know where this problem had started. They thought it was the Gods punishing them, and, in many ways, it did seem like that. This greenish sludge seemed to appear out of nowhere and it killed much of their food and water supply, harming the animals and people around it. Though it was not in fact a punishment from their deities, they tried to solve the problem by sacrificing many of their cattle to the gods to ask for forgiveness (Schmidt). This did in fact help, though not the way they thought it did. In any other situation, when an animal died, many times it would be too long before the farmer would notice, and the body would rot, leaving many nutrients to be washed into the water supply. When the animals were being sacrificed, they were being disposed of in a very clean and ritualistic fashion, which meant the bodies were burned, leaving no extra nutrients to pollute the water. Now that we have solid scientific proof to understand how and why eutrophication occurs, we can do more to prevent it.
There has not been very much done in the realm of fixing nutrient runoff so far, but I have some ideas that I believe could help. First, one of the main pollutants causing eutrophication is fertilizers from agriculture (“Irrigation and Water Use”). These fertilizers are made with phosphorus and nitrogen, which are the main chemicals that can cause eutrophication. When fields are watered, or when it rains, the fertilizers will wash into groundwater systems, or into water sources, and cause eutrophication, making the water unusable. Another solution would be to make sure that cattle and farm animals’ waste is cleaned up and disposed of responsibly. Animals’ waste in made up of about 54% nitrogen, which is one of the main causes of algal blooms (“Water Quality”). One other idea is to use skimmers, which are thin filters, to trap algae in them, and to get rid of it. This would allow organisms and water to flow through the filters, but trap large parts of the algae to then be disposed of.
Eutrophication is a serious problem that needs to be addressed quickly and efficiently. It can cause pollution of air, water, and food, and sickness and death in plants, animals and humans. If eutrophication were solved, more food could be produced, which would solve poverty and hunger (“MDGs”).
Works Cited
FFT- MDS Speech from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.
Imagine a world where there is no clean water, animals are barely surviving, crops are dying almost constantly, and there is only half of the clean oxygen supply that we have today. This is the world that we will have to survive in if eutrophication is not reduced. Eutrophication is the process in which nutrient runoff, such as pesticides, fertilizers and waste from farms, wash into bodies of water. The extra phosphorus in the water causes an excess of algae to grow, which uses the majority of the oxygen supply, and blocks sunlight, causing the other organisms living there to die. When a water supply becomes eutrophic, it can no longer be used to drink, it cannot be used to water crops, and the problem will only get worse and it very difficult to fix after the fact. Eutrophication and nutrient runoff continue to be one of the biggest environmental issues in the world today, causing pollution, sickness, and even death.
Eutrophication will, if it continues at the same rate, destroy much of our agricultural system and resources in a matter of years. Eutrophication is the main cause of ocean dead zones, which are areas of oceans that are hypoxic, or have low-oxygen levels, which almost nothing can survive in. Did you know we get more than half of our oxygen supply from the ocean and microorganisms living there? At the rate that dead zones are occurring in bodies of water across the world, all of the ocean life will be dead by the year 2050. (“Deadzone”) This means less than half of our oxygen supply, and almost 86% less of our water supply will be unusable to humans, and any other living thing on Earth. This includes all of our food sources. Yearly, Agriculture uses about 80 percent of our total water usage in the United States (“Deadzone”).
Eutrophication has become a very serious problem of late, but it has existed for thousands of years. Eutrophication has appeared naturally in nature for thousands of years not causing any problems. The first time that nutrient runoff became problematic was during the civilization of Ancient Egypt. Because of the extreme heat and harsh conditions of the Sahara Desert, the whole of the civilization was based upon the Nile River. It was their source of life. It was the water they used to clean, drink, and water plants and animals. Before they knew about the dangers of nutrient runoff, the ancient farmers of Egypt would wash the animal’s waste into the river. Before long, they started to see dead fish floating in the river, causing many to get sick, and a strange green goo in their water supply. Of course, this was the extra nutrients from the cattle’s waste that had washed into the river and destroyed much of their water supply (Schmidt).
Eutrophication has been a problem for a lot of human history. In ancient Egypt, they did not know where this problem had started. They thought it was the Gods punishing them, and, in many ways, it did seem like that. This greenish sludge seemed to appear out of nowhere and it killed much of their food and water supply, harming the animals and people around it. Though it was not in fact a punishment from their deities, they tried to solve the problem by sacrificing many of their cattle to the gods to ask for forgiveness (Schmidt). This did in fact help, though not the way they thought it did. In any other situation, when an animal died, many times it would be too long before the farmer would notice, and the body would rot, leaving many nutrients to be washed into the water supply. When the animals were being sacrificed, they were being disposed of in a very clean and ritualistic fashion, which meant the bodies were burned, leaving no extra nutrients to pollute the water. Now that we have solid scientific proof to understand how and why eutrophication occurs, we can do more to prevent it.
There has not been very much done in the realm of fixing nutrient runoff so far, but I have some ideas that I believe could help. First, one of the main pollutants causing eutrophication is fertilizers from agriculture (“Irrigation and Water Use”). These fertilizers are made with phosphorus and nitrogen, which are the main chemicals that can cause eutrophication. When fields are watered, or when it rains, the fertilizers will wash into groundwater systems, or into water sources, and cause eutrophication, making the water unusable. Another solution would be to make sure that cattle and farm animals’ waste is cleaned up and disposed of responsibly. Animals’ waste in made up of about 54% nitrogen, which is one of the main causes of algal blooms (“Water Quality”). One other idea is to use skimmers, which are thin filters, to trap algae in them, and to get rid of it. This would allow organisms and water to flow through the filters, but trap large parts of the algae to then be disposed of.
Eutrophication is a serious problem that needs to be addressed quickly and efficiently. It can cause pollution of air, water, and food, and sickness and death in plants, animals and humans. If eutrophication were solved, more food could be produced, which would solve poverty and hunger (“MDGs”).
Works Cited
“Eutrophication”. ScienceDaily. Science Daily. Web. May 7, 2016.
“Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, and Control”. Knowledge Project. The Nature Education. Web. May 8, 2016.
Fraser, Evan D. G., and Andrew Rimas. “Empires of Food: Feast, Famine, and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations”. New York: Free, 2010. Print.
“Irrigation and Water Use”. United States Department of Agriculture. United States Department of Agriculture. May 8, 2016.
“The Sources and Solutions:Agriculture”. Environmental Protection Agency. Environmental Protection Agency. Web. May 5,2016.
Schmidt, Sara. “Pollution in Ancient Egypt”. Synonym. Drive.net. Web. May 8, 2016.
“Official list of Millennium Development Goals”. MDGs.org. The United Nations. Web. May 5, 2016.
“Water Quality in the Potomac River Basin, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia”. United States Geological Survey. United States Geological Survey. Web. May 5, 2016.
“What is a Deadzone?”. National Ocean Service. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Web. May 5, 2016
Comments
Post a Comment