According to the International Nitrogen Initiative, your nitrogen consumption is contributing to a host of environmental ills:
Today, reactive nitrogen has dramatically increased in our air and water. It comes primarily from agricultural activities such as fertilizer use and manure runoff, and the burning of fossil fuels. This “nitrogen pollution” causes profound environmental impacts, including smog, acid rain, forest dieback, coastal ‘dead zones’, biodiversity loss, stratospheric ozone depletion and increased greenhouse gases. It also affects human health, including respiratory disease and an increased risk for birth defects.
If you want to wallow in shame over being a nitrogen hog, the INI’s online calculator will tell you all about how naughty you are. You enter details about your home energy use, transportation habits, and food consumption, and the calculator will tell you how your nitrogen footprint stacks up to the average for your country. It’ll also tell you how to reduce your contribution to nitrogen pollution, assuming you aren’t now crying under a desk somewhere.
For the scientifically-minded, here’s a video on how nitrogen affects the environment:
Source: Grist
Being informed about one’s impact on the environment is good but remember, every person always has some sort of impact; the only time where there would be no impact is if you ceased to exist! Do the best you can to minimize your impacts and offset others when they are impossible to avoid. Ecological awareness is the key. Life, health and the environment are interconnected- see www.ecovitality.co.za for great health and environmental articles and eco-advice.
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Water conservation and renewable energy such as solar energy are two issues that affect the global community; make a difference and start conserving water and switch to renewable energy today.