Nitrogen and Phospherous – Essential Elements, Critical Problems

Industrial production of #nitrogen and phosphorus for agriculture has expanded global food production, swelling the human population to over 8 billion. The run off from farms into waterways and sewage systems, as well as nitrous oxide into the air disrupt biogeochemical flows, which are now beyond safe boundaries for planetary health*.

While these essential elements can be kept in check with natural barriers like prairie strips on farms, vegetation on river banks, and by updating sewage treatment further downstream, lawsuits under the Clean water act are often needed to make it happen. The Narragansett Bay and the Long Island Sound are two examples where mitigation has been effective. Reducing production of beef, dairy and lamb, which use ¾ of all farmland, is a critical step in bringing essential elements back into balance., as Stephen Porder explains.

Many thanks to our guests, #StephenPorder, Acacia Professor of Ecology, Evolutionary, and Organismal Biology and Environment and Society and Associate Provost for Sustainability at Brown University, author of Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth's Past and Will Shape Our Future and co-founder of the public radio program, Possibly.

Lenny Meyersen, Environmental Engineer and former Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Health in Westchester County.

Editor, Mike Coe
Thumbnail, Eric Dehais
Music, Nitrogen by Michael Brook

*Stockholm Resilience Center

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