Ultimately, it may take revolutions in agriculture and transportation, along with the energy of hurricanes to bring life back to dead zones. "If you can't mix a dead zone with the energy of a hurricane," Diaz adds, "I don't see how geoengineering is going to do it."

Click here to see a map of dead zones around the world.

8 Comments

1. 1. jen_v 05:36 PM 8/15/08

   Cover cropping is a much more accessible, sustainable and effective method of reducing or eliminating the need for the application of nitrogen fertilizer. Of course, Monsanto and Dupont would Like you to purchase their expensive GM seed, they would Like you to think that they have the answer to a problem they are very much a part of...
   I am surprised that the SA is no more aware of the good solutions that sustainable agriculture (which is not just about sustainable agriculture, but also sustainable environment and society) have to offer - tried and tested - to this problem...

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2. 2. JustinDoDrop 06:09 PM 8/15/08

   Wow, pretty sad isnt it? Yet all the bottom feeder politicians will tell the Sheeple that everything is just hunky dory!
   
   JT
   www.FireMe.To/udi

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3. 3. teknopartz 10:07 PM 8/15/08

   Doesn't it make you wonder... today we have so much water run-off full of excess Nitrogen (which forms problematic algal blooms where not desired). At the same time we have industries setting themselves up ready to intentionally grow algae to harvest bio-diesel or whatever and 're-capture' carbon for fuel and stuff. Do the people with the Nitro/Algae problem talk to the people with the Nitro/Algae solution? Is there some way we can make these people talk to each other?

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4. 4. waggonem 04:15 PM 8/19/08

   I would like to see more exploration of bubbling air into the dead zones (in addition to, rather than as a substitute for, curtailing fertilizer and other chemical runoffs). Yes, the dead zones are in tidal waters, but the tides do not so mix up the waters as to revive the dead zones, so the tides are unlikely too much to disperse the aeration.

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5. 5. kaycee05 10:40 AM 5/5/10

   Good for making <a href="http://www.asiawriters.com">freelance writing opportunities</a>

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6. 6. SolaRoof 05:39 PM 5/21/10

   A scientist is quoted as saying: "Nitrogen is very slippery; it's very difficult to keep it on land," Diaz notes. "We need to find a technology to keep nitrogen from leaving the soil." If only Agribusiness and those who teach modern Petrochemical based production could understand that we don't need a new "technology" - what we need is to restore soils using organic and permaculture methods and stop using synthetic fertilizers that destroy soil structure and soil ecology. Healthy organic soils (unlike fertilizer) hold nitrogen in the organic material and it is released slowly by bacterial and enzymes
   action.
   
   The problem is that restoring soils around the world will take decades and the food that must be produced to feed billions will not come from wishful thinking or dreams of "new technology" which usually is code for GM plants or algae. But there is no quick fix and great dangers that we would further contaminate our ecosystem and food chain with toxic and destructive consequences.
   
   I propose an alternative approach to our food supply, which is to equip people to intensively and easily produce natural, organic food in the back yard or within our homes and communities with integrated SolaRoof greenhouse methods. Large scale Controlled Environment greenhouse growing of food, feed and fuel crops (including integrated algae) is now feasible with the SolaRoof breakthrough.

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7. 7. Ausearth 07:10 AM 6/23/10

   permaculture is a good idea

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8. 8. guido 12:58 PM 7/29/10

   In the long run reducing nitrogen fertalizer use might be the way to go, but today the problems lie with excess nitrogen in the water running into the oceans and bays. We need to deal with the problem where it is. Reducing nitrogen in any body of water is not an insoluble problem. The nitrogen can be handled before it gets into the bays and the oceans.
   
   Ask anybody who has ever had a home aquarium. You can set up biofiltration systems that put the nitrogen back into the air, where it comes from in the first place when fertalizers are manufactured. When I had an aquarium, my tap water always had nitrogen in it but the run off from my aquarium was always nitrogen free after I had added plenty of nitrogen in the fish food because I had set up an efficient nitrogen biofiltration system. Biofiltration systems can be set up in holding ponds or lakes or rivers. If you bubble off the nitrogen before it gets to bays or the oceans, the dead zones from nitrogen run off get reduced or eliminated without ruining farmers or crippling our food production systems.

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