Coal consumption in China has risen more than threefold since the 1980s.
Image: Flickr/shelisrael1
Beijing has been battling an unwelcome, unrelenting and "very unhealthy" smog for many months, much of it made up of particulate nitrogen compounds suspended in the air. Nitrogen pollution in China has kept pace with the country's rapid growth. A study published in Nature last week finds that the rate of nitrogen pollution grew by more than half in the last 30 years.
Researchers from China Agricultural University analyzed data from across the country and found the amount of nitrogen expelled into its surroundings every year rose by 8 kilograms per hectare every year between 1980 and 2010. While most of the nitrogen still comes from waste fertilizer, the source of nitrogen pollution is shifting from agriculture to industry and transport.
One of the byproducts of this saturation is nitrous oxide, one of the most threatening global warmers along with carbon dioxide and methane.
The levels of nitrogen now seen in China are similar to the levels in Europe in the 1980s, before it implemented countermeasures to protect its environment. The deposition is also well in excess of all defined threshold limits and critical load levels, said Peter Vitousek, ecologist at Stanford University and co-author of the study.
Most of China's nitrogen pollution is in the form of ammonia compounds, the kind found in fertilizer. "In the highly productive regions of China, they are putting on often two or three times more fertilizer that a Midwestern American or European farmer would use. It is often in excess of what the crop can take up, and then that is lost to the environment," Vitousek said. "There isn't any way to use fertilizer without some loss to the environment, but in China the amount is far in excess of what's required."
Senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center Eric Davidson said the excessive fertilizer use is inspired by the need for food security. "One of the biggest drivers of nitrogen pollution in China is that they are increasing their agricultural productivity."
'Astounding' levels of fertilization
"Food security is a very big issue in China, so the Chinese government has been subsidizing fertilizer costs, and as a result farmers in China are using fertilizer rates that are astounding," said Davidson, who is one of the authors of a recent U.N. Environment Programme report on global nutrient supply.
While ammonia compounds associated with farming were five times as prevalent as nitrogen oxides in the 1980s, they are now only twice as common in China's water, soil and air. The rise of coal plants, industrial production and motor vehicles spewing nitrogen oxides has tilted this balance. Coal consumption in China has risen more than threefold since the 1980s, and there are close to 21 times more wheels on China's roads.
The study, which divided the country into six economic regions, reveals that most areas that have the most factories and farms have nitrogen deposition rates higher than the national average. "The difference was really to separate the areas where economic development has been most rapid and where there's not," Vitousek said. "It is also to provide information to the Chinese authorities, who will have to take action regionally."
Both nitrous and ammoniacal pollutants are continuously and rapidly accumulating in China's environment and contribute to aerosol formation. Oxidized nitrogen becomes part of photochemical smog and ozone and is a major component of the infamous PM 2.5, particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that decreases visibility and is harmful when inhaled because it can penetrate deeply into the lungs.
A half-life of 100 years
"The problem with nitrous oxide is that its half-life in the atmosphere is more than 100 years. Even if we were to mitigate nitrous oxide now, we would still be paying the price for many generations to come," Davidson said.
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6 Comments
Add CommentGreat photo BTW: looks almost like a post nuclear winter or after a super-volcano eruption.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYep... China is the poster child for industrialization run amok... and among the robust, persistent GW greehouse effect of NO ...versus the micro-particulate-matter lung/health risks... versus acid rain and runoff with algae blooms and fish kills... versus wider global repercussions... it's hard to choose which poison is the most noxious.
What is so absurd and frustrating is relatively simple means are available to restrain this pollution on a continental scale! They've done a relatively good job curbing their prior rampant reproduction and population growth with it's attendant poverty/malnutrition/uneducation/poor healthcare... so get to work on industrial/agricultural waste control.
Anyone who buys anything made in China (an Apple I-pad for example) and then complains about Chinese industrial pollution is nothing but a hypocrite.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWell, excuuuuuse me, I guess I'm your run of the mill hypocrite.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll tell you one thing though; I would be willing to pay significantly more money to buy an I-Pad if it were made in the USA or anywhere else that the environmental cost would be lower.
Would you? If so, how much more?
Understood, but it is notable to mention that more brands than Apple are manufactured under the Foxconn roof: Acer, HP, Microsoft, Motorola, Nintendo, Nokia, Sony, Toshiba, and Visio.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe problem is, people aren't even given a choice to buy American with a lot of products, especially electronics. However, Apple says they're bringing some iMac production back to the USA, so there's some good news there, and car manufacturing in the States is growing big time, too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe REAL problem is that we've moved to a throwaway culture, having to get a new wardrobe for every season and meant to feel like a Luddite if your electronic gadgets are more than 18 months old. When you constantly cycle through new stuff like this, item purchase cost becomes more important than long-term quality. The advantages of American manufacturing get overwhelmed by the low costs China and other developing countries can offer because their workers are willing to accept a much lower standard of living than we are (and they don't give a flyin' flip about their environment as per the article, or they don't give another flyin' flip about toxic chemicals in their products, etc.).
A lot of the pollution we see in China is actually due to the demand for cheap goods in developed countries, chiefly the USA. If you want to help put a stop to it, or stop their horrendous human rights record, or stop their support for North Korea, avoid the "Made in China" label as much as you can. If there are no alternatives to Chinese-made goods, think about whether you really need the item or not. Finally, let the companies you do business with (or could potentially do business with) know that you want them to minimize their sales of Chinese made goods as much as possible.
Yeah, I say this typing on a computer that was made in China, but American-made iMacs might just get me to switch to Apple...
outsidethebox is right - if the Chinese are making products for us in Europe and North America, then we share responsibility for any environmental damage they cause. And it's not as if we don't cause environmental damage ourselves now, or as if we haven't caused horrendous damage in the past.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFarmers can use 'catchment-sensitive farming' techniques to avoid putting nitrates into watercourses, and to avoid putting nitrous oxide into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change. That includes using the minimum nitrogen fertiliser necessary and applying it only when the crop is actively growing and when the weather's suitable. Instead of synthetic fertiliser, farmers can also use nitrogen-fixing plants such as clover and alfalfa in fields, or alders in hedges, and then the nitrogen is not over-produced, and is held in the soil, not released to the atmosphere.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Nitrogen-fixing_crops
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen_fixation#Biological_nitrogen_fixation
In Britain, catchment-sensitive farming in England, to take one example, is managed by Natural England:
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/ourwork/farming/csf/default.aspx