Biggest Dead Zone Ever Forecast in Gulf of Mexico

[knocker]

A possibly record-breaking, New Jersey-size dead zone may put a chokehold on the Gulf of Mexico (map) this summer, according to a forecast released this week.

 

Unusually robust spring floods in the U.S. Midwest are flushing agricultural runoff—namely, nitrogen and phosphorus—into the Gulf and spurring giant algal blooms, which lead to dead zones, or areas devoid of oxygen that occur in the summer.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/06/130621-dead-zone-biggest-gulf-of-mexico-science-environment/

[Gray-Wolf]

I think many folk do not question agri-business's use of pertro based fertilisers Knocks? They quote top forecast grain yields as a proof that society has nothing to fear from overpopulation and then fudge the greater impacts of such follly? Question it and they will insist you want to live in a cave????

[4wd]

What would be your proposed alternative.
Organic can work with some cropping regimes but even the most enthusiastic proponents are well aware yields are likely to be much less, perhaps 50% less.
So this would require more cultivated land either ploughing more borderline areas or cutting forest somewhere.

Or maybe you want to live in a cave. 

[4wd]

Oh and what is this 'agri-business'A sort of farm that you do not like because it is big and profitable so must be bad?

 

What would be your proposed alternative. 

 

[knocker]

What would be your proposed alternative.

Organic can work with some cropping regimes but even the most enthusiastic proponents are well aware yields are likely to be much less, perhaps 50% less.

So this would require more cultivated land either ploughing more borderline areas or cutting forest somewhere.

Or maybe you want to live in a cave. 

 

 

More concentration on GM perhaps,

[4wd]

Gosh no, that's run by evil capitalist agri-business and Monsanto, it makes money so must be bad.

Besides, Greenpeace would be cross.

[SomeLikeItHot]

I think many folk do not question agri-business's use of pertro based fertilisers Knocks? They quote top forecast grain yields as a proof that society has nothing to fear from overpopulation and then fudge the greater impacts of such follly? Question it and they will insist you want to live in a cave????

 

The point being its not the source of the fertilizer (which are not petroleoum based by the way) but the level to which they are used. Organic fertilzers contain the same nitrogen and phosphorus and cause the same run off issues. They just aren't used to the same extent.

 

But what are you suggesting we should stop using them  reduce yields and let the third world starve?

[knocker]

I'm not keen on the expression, 'third world' but I was under the impression we were already letting them starve. Current food production could feed a world with twice the current population.

[be cause]

incorporation of charcoal into soil .. as was done to thousands of square miles of Amazonian rainforest in pre-Columbus days ..retains much more of any added nutrients

 

preventing run off of pollutants  . Nice to see that agri-business pollution can be blamed instead on 'climate change' .. Monsanto Speak ?

 

The first explorers of the Amazon reported hundreds of millions living in harmony with nature .. all traces gone in 30 years .. but their charcoal is still there as evidence . 

[4wd]

Where would all the charcoal come from.

[Gray-Wolf]

I'd imagine renewable sources like The 'super grower' Willow? or a move back to the Coppicing that used to be so common in the wooded valleys around here?

 

When we look at using stuff it doesn't always mean 'killing' a thing but more 'harvesting' it?

 

Then I think back to the many types of hemp that used be be so 'popular' in our area ( esp. Stockport?) to service the 'rope ' needs of our fleet? Current research on the modern varieties show it's potential from medicine, through clothing, through paper, through biomass? I believe it also 'fixes' nitrogen in the soils so 'crop rotation without needing have fields lay 'fallow' ( so the poor Farmers can maximize 'profit').

 

If we were really being serious about such things we would also look at how 'cost effective', per acre, livestock really is? when you think of how much 'food' is used to produce this 'food' it does appear a very decadent use of our resources?

[be cause]

Where would all the charcoal come from.

ikea ?

[SomeLikeItHot]

I'm not keen on the expression, 'third world' but I was under the impression we were already letting them starve. Current food production could feed a world with twice the current population.

 

Global poverty/hunger obviously remains a huge problem, but it should not be ignored that the number of undernourished and extremely poor has declined dramatically over recent years. So yes we are just not as badly as previous generations did.

[SomeLikeItHot]

incorporation of charcoal into soil .. as was done to thousands of square miles of Amazonian rainforest in pre-Columbus days ..retains much more of any added nutrients

 

preventing run off of pollutants  . Nice to see that agri-business pollution can be blamed instead on 'climate change' .. Monsanto Speak ?

 

The first explorers of the Amazon reported hundreds of millions living in harmony with nature .. all traces gone in 30 years .. but their charcoal is still there as evidence . 

 

hundreds of millions? Surely you mean hundreds of thousands, which I believe was what was reported along the river banks.

[SomeLikeItHot]

 

If we were really being serious about such things we would also look at how 'cost effective', per acre, livestock really is? when you think of how much 'food' is used to produce this 'food' it does appear a very decadent use of our resources?

 

Depends what kind of livestock of course. Sheep are often grazed on land unsuitable for crops (too steep) etc so they can't be seen as taking away food.

[Gray-Wolf]

So the Scottish 'clearences' were not just to get rid of the folk living there but to give a better form of land management a chance?????

[SomeLikeItHot]

So the Scottish 'clearences' were not just to get rid of the folk living there but to give a better form of land management a chance?????

 

 

I think you will find that before the clearances the highlanders didn't run feedlots, but instead grazed their cattle on the hillsides, and cropped in the valleys.

 

The point being its not livestock in itself that is an issue, its the way we raise them. Ideally they could be a complimentary food supply grazed on land that is not efficient for crops which is still largely the case with sheep, but not so much anymore with cattle.

 

.

[knocker]

VIMS study shows “dead zone†impacts Bay fishes

 

Low oxygen levels reduce diversity and catch rates of near-bottom species

 

A 10-year study of Chesapeake Bay fishes by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science provides the first quantitative evidence on a bay-wide scale that low-oxygen “dead zones†are impacting the distribution and abundance of “demersal†fishes—those that live and feed near the Bay bottom.

 

The affected species—which include Atlantic croaker, white perch, spot, striped bass, and summer flounder—are a key part of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and support important commercial and recreational fisheries.

 

http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/buchheister_fish_hypoxia.php