The most comprehensive assessment yet of a powerful greenhouse gas shows which countries are driving the increase, and which ones are successfully cutting emissions.
A farmer spreads fertilizer in a wheat field outside Amritsar, India.
Narinder Nanu/AFP via Getty Images
Did the Green Revolution, which brought high-tech agriculture to developing nations in the 1960s, prevent famine? Recent research takes a much more skeptical view.
Americans – especially those living in areas affected by drought – are turning to paint to give their grass that perfect green sheen.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The key to reducing green hydrogen costs in the future lies mainly in technological improvements.
The Canadian government has proposed a plan to cut emissions from fertilizers by 30 per cent from 2020 levels by 2030.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Bringing advanced technologies to the ancient practice of farming could help feed the world’s growing population, but it could also open the door for people looking to disrupt the global food system.
Satellite photo of an algal bloom in western Lake Erie, July 28, 2015.
NASA Earth Observatory
Donald Boesch, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science e Donald Scavia, University of Michigan
Nutrient pollution fouls lakes and bays with algae, killing fish and threatening public health. Progress curbing it has been slow, mainly because of farm pollution.
A farmer spreads fertilizer on a field in Berks County, Pa.
Harold Hoch/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
Farmers are contending with huge spikes in fertilizer prices. The Biden administration is paying US companies to boost synthetic fertilizer production, but there are other, more sustainable options.
The key to unlocking the benefits of new agricultural technologies is to develop food systems where the waste products from one step become valuable inputs in another.
(Shutterstock)
The world is facing one of the century’s biggest challenges: How to nutritiously feed the growing population, address climate change and not destroy the ecosystems on which we all depend for life.
Distributing flour rations and other food supplies in southern Yemen on March 29, 2022.
Saleh Al-Obeidi/AFP via Getty Images
Grain and fertilizer shortages, higher shipping costs and a strong dollar are all pushing food prices up and increasing hunger in dozens of vulnerable countries.
Fungi that live on plant roots can help with the uptake of nutrients.
(Shutterstock)
Plants communicate with the fungi on their roots, but the effects on the ecosystem of deliberately adding fungi as a fertilizer are unknown — and might be harmful.
An organic food market in Berlin.
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An expert on organic agriculture argues that the US is missing an economic and environmental opportunity by not working to scale up organic production.
Tampa Bay’s sea grass meadows need sunlight to thrive. Algae blooms block that light and can be toxic to marine life.
Joe Whalen Caulerpa/Tampa Bay Estuary Program via Unsplash
Harmful algae blooms are an increasing problem in Florida. Once nutrients are in the water to fuel them, little can be done to stop the growth, and the results can be devastating for marine life.
An insect-friendly wildflower swath at California State University, Fullerton’s arboretum.
TDLucas5000/Flickr
New research shows that one-third of yearly nitrogen runoff from Midwest farms to the Gulf of Mexico occurs during a few heavy rainstorms. New fertilizing schedules could reduce nitrogen pollution.
This transformation provides lessons for the rest of world, for shifting away from chemical agriculture towards a healthier system for people and the planet.
Water purification at a modern urban wastewater treatment plant involves removing undesirable chemicals, suspended solids and gases from contaminated water.
arhendrix/Shutterstock.com
The solids from wastewater plants are usually dumped into landfills because they are contaminated with heavy metals. Now there is a way to remove the metals so the waste can be used as fertilizer.
A harmful algal bloom in the western basin of Lake Erie in August 2017.
(NOAA/Aerial Associates Photography, Inc. by Zachary Haslick/flickr)
The ‘used water’ that flows from our showers, dishwashers and toilets isn’t a waste to engineers – it contains valuable materials. The challenge is recovering them and turning them into products.
Director and Institute Professor, Center for Earth System Science and Global Sustainability, Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Boston College