Waste as a Renewable Energy Source
| Report: Bay cleanup needs to factor in climate change. If cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay isn’t hard enough as it is, a new report makes it clear that there’s another complicating factor to worry about: climate change. |
| Waste as a Renewable Energy Source The enormous increase in the quantum and diversity of waste materials generated by human activity and their potentially harmful effects on the general environment and public health, have led to an increasing awareness about an urgent need to adopt scientific methods for safe disposal of wastes. While there is an obvious need to minimize [.] |
| Optimal Nitrogen Use Can Benefit Farmers’ Income and the Environment For some time, farmers, agri-businesses, university researchers and environmentalists have been working to improve nitrogen fertilizer management. For growers, the penalty of mismanagement can be the difference between making a profit or not. These penalties result from the extremes of either applying too much fertilizer—and therefore incurring excessive production costs—or using too little fertilizer and losing yield. Both outcomes are bad for the growers’ bottom line.Then, too, there are numerous environmental concerns. Over-fertilization can lead to excessive nitrogen losses into the air and water.Optimizing nitrogen management for corn is economically and environmentally sound. The challenge growers face is determining the most efficient management practices and application rates. Predicting the correct nitrogen rate is difficult because it is affected by many factors: the form of nitrogen fertilizer, soil temperatures, application method and timing, weather and many others.One of the best ways to improve nitrogen use efficiency is to evaluate nitrogen management in each field. The end-of-the-season stalk nitrate test can provide reliable feedback on nitrogen management, showing whether too little, excess or optimal nitrogen was available to the crop. One of the best ways for growers to use the feedback from the stalk test to improve nitrogen use efficiency is to meet with nearby growers who have stalk results from their fields and critically evaluate the results with their consultants, researchers knowledgeable about the test and agricultural extension and Natural Resources Conservation Service staff.The Iowa Soybean Association has pioneered this adaptive management approach through its On-Farm Network® , which is now working with hundreds of farmers across Iowa, where growers in every county are participating. The On-Farm Network is also collaborating with Environmental Defense Fund and other partners to expand this adaptive management approach to additional states and regions, including the Western Lake Erie Basin and the Chesapeake Bay.For more information, see www.isafarmnet.com. ISA, EDF and others recently collaborated to publish an On-Farm Update [PDF] included as an insert in the August issue of American Agriculturalist, which has a circulation of nearly 27,000 in states from Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania, north and east through Maine. The publication was also included in the July issue of Wallaces Farmer, which reaches more than 60,000 farmers, landowners and others involved in farming in Iowa.Conservation Incentives thanks Tracy Blackmer, Director of Research, Iowa Soybean Association, for this article. |
| China warns of huge rise in emissions China is famously reticent with its greenhouse gas emissions data. But a new report penned by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciencessays China’s greenhouse gas pollution could more than double in two decades. |
| Mile High Million Surpasses 65,000 Trees Since last July, Denver’s tree canopy has increased by 65,356 trees. During his second Inaugural Address on June 16, Mayor John Hickenlooper called it “one of the largest, if not the largest, single-year expansions of an urban forest in the history of this country.EUR |