Harmless Gas To Kill Us All Unless We Go Veggie
BBC News - Nitrogen pollution 'costs EU up to £280bn a year'
The study by 200 European experts says reactive nitrogen contributes to air pollution, fuels climate change and is estimated to shorten the life of the average resident by six months.
Nitrogen is the most common element in the atmosphere and is harmless...people in many areas still suffer from nitrogen-related air pollution, including small particulates that get sucked deep into the lungs, and ground-level ozone - a strongly irritant gas formed by the action of sunlight on reactive nitrogen.
Lead editor, Mark Sutton from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology near Edinburgh, told BBC News that 80% of the nitrogen in crops feeds livestock, not people.
"It's much more efficient to obtain protein by eating plants rather than animals," he said.
"If we want to help the problem we can all do something by eating less meat. Eating meat is the dominant driver of the nitrogen cycle in Europe."
Comments
Ministry of Guesstimates at work again. I daresay this will be followed by a request for a research grant to prove if this imaginary cost is even bigger.
Posted by: MarkS | April 11, 2011 7:33 AM
"If we want to help the problem we can all do something
I don't want to help the problem.
Posted by: B | April 11, 2011 7:46 AM
Complete drivel. Nitrogen in the atmosphere is an inert gas. There is no such thing as "reactive nitrogen"
Posted by: View from the Solent | April 11, 2011 9:29 AM
I'm always suspicious of vegetarians...they are all slightly unhinged. A bit like that German bloke. What was his name? Adolf something or other. He was always banging on about healthy lifestyles and getting rid of people deemed to be polloting society.
Posted by: Henry Crun | April 11, 2011 10:23 AM
"ground-level ozone - a strongly irritant gas formed by the action of sunlight on reactive nitrogen."
I don't know much, but I do know that ozone (03) is created when an oxygen molecule is split by gamma radiation and the single O atoms cling onto neighbouring O2 molecules. Not sure where N comes into play.
Posted by: Henry Crun | April 11, 2011 10:26 AM
It's 'nitrogen' in the sense that CO2 has now been reduced to 'carbon', i.e. they're moaning about nitrogen compounds esp. fetilizers. The (publicly funded) CEH press stuff makes depressing reading http://tinyurl.com/3f25xqv .... misleading, unscientific guff intended to frighten the ignorant. The nitrogen involved in the formation of ozone is in the form of nitrogen oxides, specifically nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide, both present in car exhausts - it's all in wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_ozone
And no, I don't trust vegetarians either. They're yet another unappealing fringe group of the borderline mentally ill (vegans, of course, being certifiable) who have jumped onto the CAGW fraud as a way of imposing their notions on ordinary people. The name Pachuari springs to mind in this context (as well as for the great contribtion his knowledge of railway engineering has made to the study of climate, of course).
Posted by: Phil D | April 11, 2011 12:06 PM
Ha ha everyone above fell for this obvious April fool.
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | April 11, 2011 3:25 PM
",,, 80% of the nitrogen in crops feeds livestock, not people."
Even if so, then it follows that 80% pf the di-hydrogen monoxide in crops feeds livestock, not people, and it is known [?] that it is the major "greenhouse" gas. The true answer is obvious, crops release both these dangerous things one way or another - stop raising these awful contributors, destroy farms!
Posted by: John A | April 11, 2011 4:37 PM
"Ha ha everyone above fell for this obvious April fool."
Sadly it's nothing of the kind. Such "studies" and their "conclusions" are spewed forth regularly by the green mafia.
In fact the UN World Food Program wants to force the world to go vegan "to save the planet" (and to apeace some Hindu god their head reveres).
Posted by: JTW | April 11, 2011 7:12 PM
I think this fellow is on to something here.
I'm prepared to help organize some fund-raising for this "Centre for Ecology and Hydrology".
I suggest a big BBQ this summer at my place. I do great ribs and burgers!
Posted by: JJM | April 11, 2011 9:18 PM