Can we address climate change without sacrificing water quality?

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://carnegiescience.edu/node/2476

Can we address climate change without sacrificing water quality?

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

Washington, DC—Strategies for limiting climate change must take into account their potential impact on water quality through nutrient overload, according to a new study from Carnegie’s Eva Sinha and Anna Michalak published by Nature Communications. Some efforts at reducing carbon emissions could actually increase the risk of water quality impairments, they found.

Rainfall and other precipitation wash nutrients from human activities like agriculture into waterways. When waterways get overloaded with nutrients, a dangerous phenomenon called eutrophication can occur, which can sometime lead to toxin-producing algal blooms or low-oxygen dead zones called hypoxia.

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In this latest work, they analyzed how an array of different societal decisions about land use, development, agriculture, and climate mitigation could affect the already complex equation of projecting future risks to water quality throughout the continental U.S. They then factored in how climate change-related differences in precipitation patterns would additionally contribute to this overall water quality risk.

They found that climate change mitigation efforts that rely heavily on biofuels could have the unintended consequence of increasing the amount of nitrogen entering U.S. waterways, causing water quality problems. Scenarios that required a large expansion of domestic food production would fare even worse, by increasing both fossil fuel emissions and water quality problems.

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https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-08884-w

[TreasonousBastard]

1. One of many things to consider-- and it will end with balancing all of the effects...

We already have a serious problem with nitrogen loading on Long Island. We have a LOT of farmland, all of which gets fertilized. We now also have vast numbers of waterfront homeowners who must have their yards looking like golf greens. And we have real golf courses.

All of this means enormous algae growth that either steals the oxygen from the fish or poisons the fish. Or both. Doesn't help the eel grass, either. Shellfish beds, beaches, shorebirds... All ruined thanks in large part to fertilizers.

Farmers understand, and are trying to do their part, but it's sometimes an overwhelming task.