What Lies under

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More data needed on gas drillers

Image: Bureau of Land Management

A federal energy panel issued a blunt warning to shale gas drillers and their regulators today, saying they need to step up efforts to protect public health and the environment or risk a backlash that stifles further development.

Concerted and sustained action is needed to avoid excessive environmental impacts of shale gas production and the consequent risk of public opposition to its continuation and expansion,201D said members of the Energy Department2019s Shale Gas Subcommittee in a draft report released today.

How to Double Global Food Production by 2050 and Reduce Environmental Damage

To feed the world’s growing and more affluent population, global agriculture will have to double its food production by 2050. More farming, however, usually means more environmental harm as a result of clearing land, burning fossil fuels, consuming water for irrigation and spreading fertilizer. Agriculture already imposes a greater burden on Earth than almost any other human activity, so simply doubling current practices would ruin large areas of land as well as poisoning rivers and oceans.

An international research team led by Jon Foley at the University of Minnesota has concluded that five basic changes in the way agriculture operates—and in the ways we eat—could double food production, yet decrease overall environmental impacts. The steps are as follows: improve crop yields, consume less meat, reduce food waste, stop expanding into rainforests, and use fertilizer and water more efficiently. The changes are reflected in a series of maps. For a detailed explanations, see “Can We Feed the World and Sustain the Planet?“.

Five steps, reflected in the maps below, could be taken to help feed the large population predicted for 2050 as well as reduce the sizeable harm agriculture imposes

CLOSE THE YIELD GAP: An international research team led by Jon Foley at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environmenthas devised a 5-step plan to double global food production by 2050 as well as reduce the widespread environmental harm posed by contemporary agricultural practices. All maps here were produced by Jamie Gerber at the institute. Step 1 is to raise the crop yield of the world's most ineffective farms to 95 percent of the best yields attained by farmers in similar climates. Closing this "yield gap" for the top 16 crops worldwide could produce 50 to 60 percent more food.

MORE MAIZE: Improving seeds, irrigation, fertilizer use and markets would drive up yield for many crops. For example, the yield for maize (shown) could rise significantly across parts of Mexico, Africa, Eastern Europe and elsewhere

LESS MEAT: Only 62 percent of crops become human food; 35 percent feed meat and dairy animals (the remainder is for biofuels and other uses). If humans switched to all-plant diets, all that agricultural land could produce 50 percent more human food, because feeding crops to animals that then become meat is a highly inefficient way to transfer plant energy to people. Although such a big change is unlikely, even a small shift away from meat could net many more human calories.

LOSE THE DIET GAP: If the world's top 16 crops were grown only for human food, instead of the current mix that includes animal feed and biofuels, a billion tons more human food would be available—roughly equivalent to three quadrillion kilocalories. Reducing waste is a corollary step: Roughly 30 percent of the food grown worldwide is lost to failed crops, stockpiles ruined by pests, food that is never delivered because of bad infrastructure or markets, and food that spoils or is thrown away after purchase

STOP BURNING TROPICAL FORESTS: The industry of agriculture is so massive that it now constitutes a grave environmental threat. Producing even more food would severely damage the planet. Agriculture has expanded its output in recent years primarily by clearing land. Today humankind cultivates 38 percent of Earth's ice-free surface; pastures and rangelands for livestock cover two thirds of that area, and croplands cover the rest. Because most of the remaining land is desert, mountainous, tundra or urban, expansion today occurs mostly by burning down tropical forests and savannas, which releases vast quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and severely reduces biodiversity

USE FERTILIZER MORE EFFICIENTLY: Environmental damage also results from massive overuse of fertilizer. Incredible volumes of excess nitrogen, alone, run off crop fields into rivers and oceans, creating enormous "dead zones" like the one that develops annually in the Gulf of Mexico, which have grown in past years to cover areas the size of Connecticut or New Jersey. Farms in the central U.S. are extremely wasteful, but so are those in much of Europe, India and China. Foley's group estimates that 10 percent of the world's croplands account for 32 percent of the global nitrogen surplus—hot spots that could use much less fertilizer and still achieve the same yield.

Scientific America

Big Oil Windfalls

Facing South is a weekly source for in-depth coverage and fresh perspectives on the South, published by the Institute for Southern Studies. Visit here to join or donate; please go here if you’d like to unsubscri INSTITUTE INDEX – Big Oil’s windfallsAmount by which BP plans to reduce its 2010 tax bill by writing off losses from the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster: almost $13 billion Amount BP originally anticipated writing off for the disaster: $9.9 billion Amount BP claimed in losses due to the spill: nearly $41 billion Percent of losses that U.S. law allows corporations to claim on their taxes: up to 35 percent Amount BP paid in federal income tax to the U.S. government in 2010: $0 Tax breaks currently enjoyed by the U.S. oil industry: $4 billion Amount that the repeal of eight key oil and gas tax breaks would boost federal revenues over the next five years: $23 billion Profits reported last year by Exxon Mobil: $30 billion Increase that represents over the previous year: 59% Exxon’s domestic federal tax rate last year: 16% Gain in BP’s profits for the first quarter of 2011: 17% Its earnings for the quarter: $7.1 billion Increase in Conoco Phillips profits in the first quarter of 2011: 44% Year in which President Ford called for a windfall profits tax to ensure oil producers don’t “profit unduly” from decontrolling the price of domestic crude: 1975 Year in which Congress enacted such a tax: 1980 Number of years it remained in force before being repealed by Congress: 8 (Click on figure to go to source.)

Southern Institute Gulf Numbers

INSTITUTE INDEX – The post-BP disaster health crisis Percent of the population living within 10 miles of Gulf of Mexico waters in areas affected by the BP disaster who were directly exposed to the spilled oil: 40 Percent of Southeast Louisiana residents surveyed by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade who reported being exposed to BP’s oil or chemical dispersants: 46 Precent of those who believed they were exposed who reported at least one associated health symptom: 72 Number of former Exxon Valdez cleanup workers estimated to be suffering from illnesses related to that 1989 disaster: 3,000 Number of people who trained to be cleanup workers following the BP disaster: about 100,000 Date on which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced its concerns that some BP oil spill workers were not receiving proper training: 7/7/2010 Date on which BP cleanup worker Clayton Matherne was airlifted to shore after he began vomiting blood due to chemical poisoning: 5/30/2010 Number of years that Matherne’s doctors say he can expect to live if detoxification therapy fails to work: 5 Number of pieces of protective gear that Matherne was provided with during his more than one month on the cleanup job: 0 Of the18 chemical dispersants that the EPA has approved for use on oil spills, number found to be more effective on southern Louisiana crude than Corexit, the brand that was used: 12 Number of times less toxic than Corexit some of the other brands are: 10 or 20 Number of gallons of dispersant BP has reported spraying on the spill: about 2 million Date on which the EPA and Coast Guard ordered BP to stop using surface dispersants on the spill without first getting special exemptions: 5/26/2010 Percent by which dispersant use declined following that order: 9 Under FDA guidelines, number of jumbo Gulf shrimp it’s safe for a 176-pound man to eat each week given levels of oil contamination: 4 Median number of seafood meals consumed by Gulf residents each month: 20 (All of these figures are from the first two installments of Facing South’s investigation into the post-BP disaster health crisis in the Gulf. You can read them here and here.)

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