A List of Major Ideas
- Human society has one key chemical industry to thank for that abundance— the producers of nitrogen fertilizer
- This element is needed for DNA and RNA, the molecules that store and transfer genetic information
- Getting nitrogen from the atmosphere to crops is not an easy matter
- The splitting of paired nitrogen molecules and subsequent incorporation of the element into the chemically reactive compound ammonia, that's nitrogen fixation
- The most important nitrogen- fixing bacteria are of the genus Rhizobium, symbionts that create nodules on the roots of leguminous plants, such as beans or acacia trees
- The use of soluble inorganic nitrates ,from rock deposits found in Chilean deserts, and organic guano ,from the excrement left by birds on Peru’s rainless Chincha Islands' provided a temporary reprieve for some farmers.
- Only Norway, with its cheap hydroelectricity, started making nitrogen fertilizer with this process in 1903, but total output remained small
- Fritz Haber combined these gases at a pressure of 200 atmospheres and a temperature of 500 degrees Celsius in the presence of solid osmium and uranium catalysts.
- The most abundant form (N2), which makes up 78 percent of the atmosphere, is so strongly bonded that it does not engage in most chemical reactions.
- During the 1950s, the use of nitrogen fertilizer gradually rose to 10 million tons; then technical innovations introduced during the 1960s cut the use of electricity in the synthesis by more than 90 percent and led to larger, more economical facilities for the production of ammonia
- A dangerous accumulation of nitrates is commonly found in water wells in the American corn belt and in groundwater in many parts of western Europe
- Fertilizer nitrogen that escapes to ponds, lakes or ocean bays often causes eutrophication
- As a result, algae and cyanobacteria can grow with little restraint; their subsequent decomposition robs other creatures of oxygen and reduces or eliminates, fish and crustacean species
The Author's Main Point. Nitrogen is an element found in the atmosphere that is hard to breakdown. But the importance of this element cause an industry t to raise by itself, making fertilizers a number one tool for farmers to grow crops.This cause food production to increase. The negative effect of the fertilizers are that they end up in bodies of water, putting the marine ecosystem in danger.The fertilizers provide to much nutrients that causes algae blooms this called,eutrophocation.
Then after that the dead algae piles up, and the bacteria that decompose the algae will use up the oxygen, depleting other organisms from oxygen. Fertilizers have a big side effect to our marine ecosystem they are provide to much nutrients that are causing algae blooms , that lead to dead zones. The reduction for food production is need as well as our population growth. |
My Opinion
I think that we should stop growing things that required a high level amount of fertilizer. WIth the population growing at such rapid speed we should think for lasting solutions to problems that we have created. Reducing the use of fertilizers is the first step. Finding a more sustainable way to grow crops. This article shows how dependent we have become on fertilizers. Relying on something that causes so many environmental issues such as algae blooms. can have a huge impact.
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